


Brothers, Sisters

by JakkuScavenger



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Boudoir Shoot, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Found Family, Healing, Jon Snow and the Starks Are Not Related, Modern AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Domestic Violence, Photographer! Jon Snow, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:14:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23745127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JakkuScavenger/pseuds/JakkuScavenger
Summary: After a tragic event hits the lives of Jon Snow and his little sister Lyanna, they move to be closer to friends. Jon ends up reconnecting with a teenage crush. All the while, trying to raise a 13 year old.
Relationships: Jon Snow & Arya Stark, Jon Snow & Original Child Character, Jon Snow/Sansa Stark, Sansa Stark & Margaery Tyrell
Comments: 111
Kudos: 244





	1. Bars and Babysitting

**Author's Note:**

> TW: mentions of cancer

“Lyanna! Tell me you’re dressed, Theon will be here any minute,” Jon shouted from the kitchen as he put the tray of lasagna in the oven.

Out of the corner of his vision, he saw his little sister come out of her bedroom on her phone.

“Yes, I’m ready, but honestly I don’t get why I had to change, it’s not like I’m going anywhere,” Lyanna huffed without looking up from her phone.

Jon set the timer on the oven for 45 minutes and walked towards the front door of their apartment to put on his shoes. He was actually having a night out to himself for the first time in 3 months, at the behest of his best friend whom had been bothering him every weekend to come out to the bar with her. Jon had finally relented after the hundredth text and phone call from her.

Jon finished tying his laces and walked over to his sister, now on the couch, and ruffled her hair to get her attention away from that bloody phone, “well I appreciate you putting on pants, I’ll consider that a win,” Jon laughed at the dirty look Lyanna threw his way.

“We’ve talked about this, pants are overrated. Don’t deny it Snow, you agree with me, I can see it on your face,” Lyanna argued.

Jon grimaced, “You spend too much time with Theon, I think I’m going to have to find you a new babysitter.”

“I’m 13, I don’t need a babysitter anymore, exactly what kind of trouble do you think I’ll get into dear brother?” Lyanna batted her lashes innocently, giving her brother the wide doe eyes, which he would admit, tend to make him soft.

“I’m not answering that…and you know I feel more comfortable if there’s someone here with you. Plus, I thought you liked hanging out with Theon,” Jon asked just as he heard said man knock on the front door.

He hurried to answer it before Ghost started barking and upset the neighbors again.

“Hey man.”

“Jonathon, always good to see you mate, where’s Baby Snow?” Theon pushed past Jon, not waiting for the man to “fake” being annoyed at the use of his full name. Theon noticed the mop of dark hair hanging over the edge of the couch and leapt over the side, surprising Lyanna.

“Jesus, why don’t you give me a heart attack, you sure I shouldn’t be babysitting YOU?” Lyanna shouted while still trying to catch her breath.

“Oh what, don’t want me to see who you’re texting Baby Snow? Got a secret admirer I need to grill?” Theon exaggeratingly leaned over Lyanna’s shoulder to get a better look at her phone, “Andrew? Who the fuck is Andrew!” Theon yelled towards Jon, while Lyanna punched his shoulder.

“It’s 2020 asshole, girls can be friends with guys and don’t need to be interrogated by you or any other man in my life for that matter!” Lyanna fumed.

“Language!” Jon shouted from the kitchen, checking on the lasagna in the oven, “I’m heading out, hopefully the two of you can keep from murdering each other for a few hours. Theon, dinner is in the oven for you both, should be ready in about 30 minutes. If you smell smoke, you’ve left it in too long,” Jon exhaled as he walked back into the living room and kissed his sister on the forehead.

“I love you, be good for Theon. Theon…make sure she eats something and doesn’t just sit on her phone all night.”

“No worries Jonathon, Baby Snow and I will make sure to watch violent movies and play video games for the rest of the evening,” Theon winked at Lyanna who threw him back a small smile.

Jon just shook his head and made his way out the front door, earning one last, “Don’t I get a kiss goodbye!” from Theon.

Jon walked into the dimly lit pub a few blocks down from where his and Lyanna’s apartment was and quickly looked around to see it was only half full. The person he was looking for sat at the bar already drinking a beer almost half the size she was. Jon sat on the bar stool next to her and ordered a beer.

“Hey, I was getting worried you backed out on me, thought I was gonna have to call Lyanna to kick your ass out of the house,” the young woman smiled softly towards her best friend.

“Nice to see you too Arya,” Jon chuckled and took a swill of beer.

“Little do you know this is part of my master plan to make you have a life again and spend time with people your own age. I love Lyanna, but being trapped in a tiny apartment with a 13-year-old all day sounds like hell.”

Jon smirked sadly, but quickly pulled his face back into strong stoicism that he knew Arya could see right through, “you know she needs me right now. She’s still getting adjusted to the new school and trying to make friends. I still wonder if it was the right call to move back up North,” Jon swiped a hand through his long curls, chastising himself for not bringing a hair tie.

Arya looked at her best friend with soft eyes, wishing he wasn’t so hard on himself, “Jon, you did the best you could with an all-around shitty situation. Cut yourself some slack. You went from being a brother to being a parent in the blink of an eye. Nothing prepares you for that and as your best friend, I feel the need to tell you you’re doing a brilliant job.”

“Arya…”

“No Jon! You need to hear this! You took care of all your mother’s affairs by yourself, managed to move you and Lya up here because you wanted her to have a support network around her, found a place for you all to live, and her a new school…without anyone’s help. I don’t know of any other 26-year-old who is capable of that type of responsibility. I mean shit, look at Robb and Theon,” Jon laughed alongside Arya as he held the bottle of beer in his hand, watching as the condensation dripped down.

“Thanks, hon…I just worry about Lyanna. She’s always been quiet, even before mom died. I fear she hasn’t really processed everything, I know I haven’t.”

Arya turned back towards her beer, “well she’s got you and the entire Stark family to support her. Plus, you know I’m always around if she ever needs anything she might not want to go to you for.”

Jon couldn’t help but wrap his arm around his best friend’s shoulders and plant a kiss on her temple. He had known Arya’s brother Robb since high school. Robb’s father and Jon’s mother had been childhood friends and reconnected around the time Jon started high school. Jon met Arya through Robb and naturally, him and Arya clicked as soon as they were introduced. Jon didn’t want to admit it to Robb, but leaving Arya when he went off to college was more devastating than leaving Robb. When Jon and Lyanna’s mother was diagnosed with cancer last year, the entire Stark family stepped in to help. Lyanna thought of Ned and Catelyn Stark as grandparents, and even stayed with them for a month after their mother passed away so Jon could get things together in order for them to move back North. After Jon saw the support the Stark’s gave to him and Lyanna throughout the entire affair, he knew it would be in Lyanna’s best interest to move them closer to them where she would have that continued support. Jon wasn’t keen to admit it, but he enjoyed having them around too.

“Speaking of the Stark family. Mom wanted me to invite you and Lyanna over for brunch tomorrow. She keeps asking why she hasn’t seen you both in a while. I told her you’ve been trying to get Lyanna adjusted to the transition and settled in but she really wants to see you guys,” Arya said.

“Who all is going to be there?” Jon asked as he sipped his beer.

“You mean, is Sansa going to be there?” Arya grinned cunningly, raising an eyebrow.

Jon flinched at the mention of his teen crush. He had never spoken to Sansa much when he was younger. Jon’s family didn’t live close to the Starks so he always had to make an effort to see Robb and Arya, meaning he never got to spend much time around Sansa. He had only talked to her in passing, then she went off to college in the South. All Jon remembered was being very attracted to her and Robb teasing him endlessly about it. Evidently, Robb had mentioned it at some point to Arya.

“Arya…” Jon groaned.

“Yes Jon, my hot sister whom you had a crush on will be there in all her red-haired glory for you to woo,” Arya giggled.

“Ugh, god, I’m going to kill Robb,” Jon said as he rested his hand on his cheek, trying to will away the blush that had been there since the mention of Arya’s sister.

Arya couldn’t seem to stop laughing…Jon eventually joined in.

Jon was glad he didn’t drive to the pub as he was definitely borderline drunk. Arya had insisted they do whiskey shots. Jon hadn’t drunk like that since college and as small as Arya was, she was not in any way, a light weight. He hoped the cold walk back to his apartment would sober him up or at the very least, Lyanna would be asleep before he got in so as not to see what a bad example her brother was setting for her.

Jon walked up the steps to his apartment door and unlocked it as quietly as his alcohol laced brain would allow him. Ghost stood up from where he was lying in the living room and walked sleepily over to Jon.

“Hey boy,” Jon bent down and gave Ghost’s head a rub before wandering towards the living room to see Theon watching television quietly with Lyanna asleep against his shoulder. Theon lifted his gaze when he saw Jon by the couch.

“Baby Snow passed out while watching Return of the King, would honestly be mad at her for her treachery if she wasn’t so cute,” Theon muttered quietly, as to not wake Lyanna.

“How was she?” Jon asked as he sat down on the couch next to his little sister.

“All is quiet on the home front Jonathon. We ate dinner and played video games for a while, then I started asking questions about this Andrew fella and she quickly stated she wanted to watch Lord of the Rings. I’ll get the scoop out of her one of these days.”

Jon chuckled, “Andrew is her best friend from school back home, he was devastated when we moved and they’ve been talking every day since we left.”

“Sounds like more than friendship to me Jon,” Theon teased, enjoying the death glare Jon shot his way.

“I better get her to bed so you can head home,” Jon stood and picked Lyanna up, carrying her to her bedroom. Jon laid her gently on her bed and tucked her in.

“Thanks for hanging out with her tonight Theon, Arya was right, I really did need a night out to myself.”

“No problem, she’s way more fun to hang out with than you anyway,” Theon tormented as he bid Jon goodnight and excused himself from the Snow household.

Jon sat on the couch, much too wired to try and fall asleep. He thought about seeing Sansa tomorrow and wondered how much she would look like she did from his memories. Jon sighed and rested his head on the back of his couch and closed his eyes.


	2. Brunch

Jon and Lyanna walked up the steps towards the front door of the Stark house. Lyanna expressed frustration at Jon for waking her up so early this morning, until she realized they were going over to see her surrogate grandparents. Jon’s heart swelled at watching such a big smile spread across Lyanna’s face and felt bad for keeping her away from them for so long.

Jon knocked on the front door and heard a cacophony of barking on the other side. Ned opened the door and beamed once he noticed Lyanna standing on the other side.

“Papa Ned!” Lyanna shouted as she jumped into his arms, making the older man stumble back slightly, but regained balance quickly and positioned Lyanna on his hip, even though she was much too heavy for him to hold.

“Good to see you Jon, come on in. Catelyn is setting up the table for brunch,” Ned said with a hand on Jon’s shoulder.

Jon walked in and shut the door behind him. He looked into the living room to see Bran and Rickon playing video games. He quickly threw a “hi” their way and left them to enjoy their Saturday gaming session. He entered the kitchen to see Catelyn getting silverware together to set the table. She looked up to see Ned carrying Lyanna and dropped everything with a large smile.

“Lyanna! How are you sweet girl?”

Lyanna had Ned let her down to go over and hug Catelyn with all her might. Jon felt his heart grow even fonder than he thought possible. He heard footsteps enter the kitchen behind him and turned to see red hair and startled eyes looking back at him.

“Jon, hi.”

Jon smiled shyly, “hey, it’s nice to see you again, it’s been a minute,” he suddenly felt like he didn’t know what to do with his hands and shoved them in his pockets. Sansa was in a word…gorgeous. She had certainly grown since the last time he saw her.

“A minute? More like 10 years,” Sansa chuckled as she stared at the attractive man before her. She remembered seeing Jon in passing a couple times in her youth, but didn’t recall him being quite so…well…hot.

She found her attention pulled away from his tight black shirt and curly hair pulled back into a bun when she noticed the young girl hugging her mother.

“Who might you be, love?” Sansa asked with kind eyes and a sweet smile.

“Oh, this is my little sister, Lyanna.” Jon said, throwing his arm around his sister, noting that she became slightly shy around someone new.

“Lyanna, this is Sansa. She’s Robb and Arya’s sister.”

“Hi,” Lyanna awkwardly waved only in the way a 13-year-old could.

Catelyn stepped in, saving the young girl from more embarrassment, “Lyanna dear, would you mind helping me set the table? Sansa, can you let Arya know brunch is ready?”

The Starks and Snows ate brunch without much fanfare. Catelyn was quite interested in how Jon and Lyanna were settling into their new home. Jon noticed Lyanna was fairly quiet throughout most of the meal, which was unusual for her. Jon made eye contact with Arya, then looked pointedly at his little sister. Arya caught on and asked Lyanna if she wanted to go outside with her and the dogs. Lyanna jumped at the opportunity. Ned and Catelyn got up to clear the dishes, leaving Sansa and Jon by themselves at the table.

Sansa shifted uneasily in her seat, “it’s really good to see you again, Jon,” she hesitated, “mum told me what brought you back up North. I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what you and Lyanna went through.”

Jon found he couldn’t look across the table at Sansa as his mind filled with memories from the day of the funeral. His sister stood so stoically all through the ceremony. The only sign of emotion she displayed was when she gripped his hand tight as they lowered their mother into the Earth. The Starks had hosted the reception at their home, graciously. They knew Jon couldn’t afford catering or a space to rent and paid for everything themselves without mentioning a thing to him. Once everyone who wasn’t “family” left, Lyanna went upstairs to Arya’s childhood bedroom. Jon hadn’t noticed how long she was gone for until Robb asked him where she was. The sight that met Jon when he found her in the bedroom was one he doesn’t think his soul will ever be able to heal from. Lyanna was laid flat on Arya’s bed, clutching a pillow to her face and chest, in an attempt to stifle her sobs. Jon had rushed over to his sister and cradled her shaking body against his form, rocking her, to try and calm her tremors. She had yelled at him to go away but Jon could just tell that she was embarrassed. Lyanna was always private about her emotions and wanted to be the face of bravery for her brother and the people she looked up to.

In the end, it had taken Arya holding his sister all night long as the tears rolled down Lyanna’s cheeks, even as she slept, to calm her. Catelyn made cup after cup of hot tea and placed warm compresses on her forehead to try and relax Lyanna when she started hyperventilating from the sobbing. All the while he sat next to the bed, feeling helpless.

“Jon?”

He realized he had been staring at his empty plate for who knows how long and felt heat rush to his cheeks at Sansa’s intense but soft, gaze.

“Sorry,” Jon said while trying to regain his composure.

“You don’t need to apologize, I’m sorry I brought it up.” _Well done Sans, bringing up the worst time in his life._

“That’s alright, we’re doing better now…well, at least I think we are. It’s hard to tell with Lyanna. She’s so quiet, doesn’t really talk about how she’s feeling,” Jon sighed, running a hand through his hair instinctually, before realizing it was pulled back.

“Is it just you and Lyanna?” Sansa asked while playing with her napkin in her lap, suddenly feeling awkward in her skin…had Jon always been this attractive when they were younger?

“Yeah, our dad hasn’t been in the picture for a long time. Honestly, I don’t even know where he is, don’t really care to find out. Your family was really there for us when mom died. I thought it was only right to move us back up North so Lyanna could have some semblance of family around her.” Jon noticed how intently Sansa was listening to him, like she felt every emotion he did. Jon didn’t remember the last time someone who wasn’t Arya actually listened to him.

As if detached from her body, Sansa suddenly found herself reaching her hand across the table to hold Jon’s, “I’m sorry I wasn’t at the funeral. I wanted to come when mum told me about it but…” Sansa found herself pausing, “I was tied up down South.”

Jon felt like the wind was knocked out of him when the woman across from him took hold of his hand. He noticed how soft her skin felt against his rough hands from all the construction work he did on his mother’s house in order to get it ready to sell. Sansa’s words snapped him back to reality and could tell there was more she wanted to say. His face fell slightly when she pulled her hand away and looked up at him sheepishly, like she hadn’t meant to be so forward.

“Sansa…” Jon startled at the sliding glass door opening as Arya walked back inside with Lyanna, with a hand on her back.

Arya looked at Jon and her sister with knowing eyes before asking if she could have a private word with Jon. Lyanna looked like she didn’t know what to do with herself and Sansa found herself asking, “hey Lyanna, do you mind helping me bring the rest of these dishes into the kitchen?”

Lyanna looked to her brother with cautious eyes for some sort of approval.

“Go ahead love, I’m sure Nana Cat would be very appreciative of the help. I’ll be right back and then we can head home.”

Lyanna smiled softly at Sansa and began gathering the rest of the dishes to bring to the sink, where Catelyn was busy washing everything, humming happily to herself.

Arya walked with Jon into the adjoining formal sitting room where they could speak without being heard by anyone.

“So, have you wooed my sister yet?” Arya teased, giggling to herself at Jon’s unamused expression.

“Oh yes, we are actually getting married next week, haven’t you heard,” Jon replied feeling a warmth cover his face.

Arya laughed, “you wish,” she settled into the large cushioned seat a bit more, “anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up that Lyanna’s having a bit of a rough day.”

Jon perked up and leaned forward in his seat with his arms resting on his thighs, “I could tell something was off, she’s usually so talkative with your parents when she’s over…anything happen in particular?”

“Not really. I mean, trying to get anything out of Lyanna is like pulling teeth,” Jon chuckled at that, “sometimes teenagers just have bad days Jon, she’s probably hormonal and doesn’t know why she feels upset, just that she does. She has a lot of emotions pent up in that tiny body of hers and doesn’t quite know what to do with them.”

Jon took a deep breath, fell back into his chair, and swiped a hand across his face, “I don’t know what I’m doing Arya…I have no business trying to raise her. She would probably be better off staying here with your parents for a little while.”

Arya stood up from her chair and walked over to Jon. She crouched down to try and get under his line of vision. He had his eyes closed and looked as though he was in pain. Arya rested a hand on his knee, causing him to open his eyes and rapidly blink away the tears that started to form.

“Jon, Lyanna would not be better off here with my parents. She needs her brother right now. You’re the only other person in this world that knows exactly what she’s going through and she would be devastated if she lost you. She may not show it, but she loves you so much, Jon, and one day she’ll realize all that you did for her.”

Jon quickly wiped the tear that had fallen down his cheek and pulled himself together. He knew Arya was right but just felt so out of his depth. Truthfully, Lyanna was the reason he still got up every morning and didn’t spend every night drinking in a bar with Theon until he couldn’t feel his sorrow anymore.

“I think you and Lyanna should go home and snuggle up on the couch, watch a movie, and make some popcorn. Order take-out for dinner and just listen to her if she wants to talk. Don’t push anything, just be there for her, okay?” Arya comforted.

Jon nodded his head and got up out of his seat to pull his best friend into his arms. Arya let him hold her for a minute, then patted his back firmly to let him know it would be okay. Jon smiled; Arya was about as bad at displaying physical affection as Lyanna was.

He took a deep breath and walked back towards the kitchen to see how his sister was fairing. Jon stood by the door that led to the kitchen, noticing it was cracked open. He peaked in after hearing Lyanna speaking softly with Sansa, while washing dishes.

“…schools okay, I haven’t really made any friends yet,” he heard Lyanna say quietly.

“When I went off to college, I didn’t know anyone. It definitely sucked. My best friend went to a totally different school than me and my roommate and I didn’t get along very well,” Sansa replied, handing another dish to Lyanna for her to dry.

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, I was pretty miserable at school until I met my friend Margaery. She ended up being the only friend I made in college but honestly, I would trade knowing a thousand people to be best friends with her. Sometimes, all you need is one good person by your side. I’m sure you’ll meet your Margaery soon. It just takes weeding through the assholes to get to the person you’re supposed to be with.”

Jon’s heart swelled as he heard his little sister giggle and look up towards Sansa with what he could only call admiration. He knocked on the door softly, hoping his sister didn’t know he had heard some of their conversation.

“Lya, you ready to head back home?”

Lyanna turned to look at her brother, then back to Sansa, “thanks for talking to me,” she said sweetly, drying her hands on a kitchen towel before walking over towards Jon.

Jon placed a hand on Lyanna’s shoulder, “it was nice seeing you again Sansa, hopefully it won’t be another 10 years before I see you again,” he joked, then looked down towards his sister, “Lya, why don’t you go say goodbye to Nana Cat and Papa Ned so we can leave.”

Jon turned one last time to Sansa who was biting her lip, seemingly deep in thought.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you at the next family brunch,” _Say something else, idiot._

“Jon!” Sansa found herself yelling after him, “wait a second.”

He felt his pulse rise and the red return to his face as Sansa stopped in front of him with her phone in hand.

“I wanted to give you my number…in case you ever needed help with Lyanna. I’m an expert babysitter after having three younger siblings…um, that is if you ever wanted me to babysit of course,” Sansa found herself stuttering, “n-not that I would assume I could or anything.”

“Sans,” Jon interrupted with a laugh and a nickname he remembered from their youth, “I would love to have your number, for Lyanna of course.”

They exchanged numbers and said their goodbyes with mutually shy smiles. Jon felt lighter leaving the Stark house than when he had arrived. He noticed on the drive home, Lyanna seemed to be a bit happier as well.

Jon looked over at his sister, “did you have a good time?”

Lyanna nodded her head, “it was nice seeing everyone.”

Jon refocused on the road ahead, “I’m sorry it took so long for you to see them again.”

Lyanna only sighed and rested her head on the car window.

Jon cleared his throat, “was it nice talking to Aunt Arya, you guys were outside for quite a while?” He could never figure out how much to push with his sister. Sometimes, he felt like he was walking on eggshells.

“Yeah…I liked talking to Sansa too, she’s really nice.”

Jon felt a smile stretch across his face, “she is nice.”

When they finally got home, Lyanna went to change into more comfortable clothing while Jon ordered them a pizza.

“Lyanna! What kind of toppings do you want?”

“Anything but pineapple!”

Jon snickered at the mention of their age-old argument over whether pineapple belonged on pizza. Jon happened to like it, while Lyanna thought it was obscene.

Lyanna walked back into the living room, wearing pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt and took a seat on the couch.

“Pizza should be delivered in about 20 minutes, what movie do you want to watch?” Jon sat down next to his sister and laid his head back, suddenly feeling exhausted.

“Mmm, Empire Strikes Back?” Lyanna looked his way with an exaggerated smile on her face. They watched Star Wars almost every weekend since it was Lyanna’s favorite series. Jon didn’t mind watching it too much as it always put a smile on his sister’s face.

“Alright…” Jon groaned, pretending to be annoyed.

Lyanna put on the movie and they settled into the quiet of their space, watching intently.

The pizza finally arrived and they both stretched out on the couch, eating their fill, enjoying the scene currently playing where Han is frozen in carbonite. Lyanna kept pointing out behind the scenes facts she knew. Jon never had the heart to tell her he already knew everything because she pointed out the same stuff every viewing. He enjoyed hearing his sister actually share something with him that she loved.

He noticed she kept checking her phone every minute or so and would huff in frustration when her screen was blank. After she almost threw her phone on the coffee table, Jon finally inquired.

“What’s up kiddo?”

“Nothing,” his little sister sank back into the couch cushions and crossed her arms over her chest, burrowing into her sweatshirt.

Jon turned back towards the television; Darth Vader was fighting Luke Skywalker, “obviously somethings the matter,” he uttered almost inaudibly.

Lyanna hesitated for a minute, long enough that Jon was about to give up asking, when he realized he heard her breathing quicken. He looked over to his right to see the tears beginning to fall down Lyanna’s face and chin trembling.

“Oh hey, hey, honey what’s wrong?” Jon scooted over towards his sister and almost scooped her into his arms, but thought twice of it when she covered her face with her hands, attempting to hide her tears.

“I shouldn’t be crying, it’s so stupid,” his sister wept.

Jon sighed, feeling inadequate once again. He wished Arya was here. Hell, even Theon was good at saying something wildly inappropriate that would make her giggle and get her out of her head.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I just want you to know it’s okay to cry sometimes and I’m here if you need me,” Jon’s eyes roamed over his sister, noticing her breathing had begun to even out.

Lyanna took a deep breath and wiped her face with her sweatshirt sleeve. She looked at her brother with large, teary eyes, “I texted Andrew yesterday and this morning, and he never answered me. Then I tried calling him when we got home and it went straight to voicemail. I feel like he’s already forgetting about me,” Lyanna’s tears came back anew, and this time, Jon pulled his sister into his lap and wrapped her in his arms.

He placed soft kisses on her head as he did when she was just a baby, and murmured to her that it would be okay. She cried for a few more minutes, then became quiet and buried her face into Jon’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Baby, why are you apologizing?” Jon rubbed her back in soothing circles, feeling his heart continue to break.

“Because, I shouldn’t be complaining about a stupid boy not texting me back and making your life more difficult than it already is,” she muttered through her sleeve covered mouth.

Jon pulled his head back, “hey, look at me,” Lyanna slowly lifted her eyes to meet his gaze, “you are not, nor have you ever, made my life more difficult.”

Lyanna looked back down towards the rug covered floor, as though she didn’t believe him, “you’re just saying that, I know how stressed you’ve been.”

Jon exhaled softly and closed his eyes, thinking back to all the times he sat at their kitchen table, paying bills with his limited income, and would curse profusely to himself when he thought his sister was busy in her room.

“Lyanna, it’s not your job to worry about me. It’s mine to worry about you, alright? It’s your job to be a teenager and go to school, make new friends, and do your homework, got it? And Andrew isn’t just some boy, he’s your best friend and it’s normal to feel lonely and want to talk to your best friend. He hasn’t forgotten about you, but the next time you talk to him, I would tell him how this made you feel. Maybe you set a time each day to talk to each other, before dinner or something, yeah?”

Jon got a small smile out of Lyanna and decided that was the best outcome he was gonna get.

“I’ve really never made your life difficult, even when I was little?” Lyanna smirked knowingly, as she settled back into the couch with her legs still draped over Jon’s lap.

Jon grinned, “well, there was that one time when you were 3 and I was up in my room with a-uh, a friend, who happened to be a girl…”

“A girl you were making out with behind mom’s back,” Lyanna interrupted, having heard Theon tell the story many times before.

“Yes, okay, a girl I was into. Anyway, we were in my room…enjoying each other’s company when all of a sudden you came bursting into my room naked, save for your big poofy diaper, and strolled right over to me, laughing, wanting me to come play with you,” Jon smiled to himself at the memory.

“Poor girl didn’t know what hit her when mom came running in to grab me and saw your ‘friend’ with her shirt unbuttoned,” Lyanna tormented, covering her mouth to stifle her rampant giggling.

Jon sputtered, “what?! Who told you that…oh Theon is so dead.”

Lyanna finally caught her breath from laughing so hard, “seriously though, why did mom even let you two up into your bedroom…alone…with the door closed?”

“Because, I was the golden child, the first born, so she didn’t know any better. I don’t think mom ever thought she would have to worry about me like that. Uncle Robb was the one who Papa Ned would catch sneaking a girl out his window when he was 17…” Jon thought and then realized, “I don’t think Nana Cat knows about that…so best not mention I told you that.”

Lyanna gave him the legendary Snow glance, the one that said, I know everything and nothing at the same time, “I’m pretty sure Nana Cat had her suspicions, nothing seems to go on that she doesn’t know about.”

Jon smiled at his little sister, “please don’t ever put me through that, okay? I don’t want to have a heart attack before I’m 30.”

“Dude! I’m 13, and we share a wall…there’s no way I’m getting anything past you,” Lyanna answered incredulously.

Jon rubbed his thumb on Lyanna’s calf while looking around their small, but cozy apartment, “you like it here right?”

He almost didn’t want to hear her answer. Jon didn’t think he would ever be able to forgive himself if he ruined his sister’s childhood or made a huge decision for her that ended up negatively impacting her life.

Lyanna looked over at her brother and noticed the sorrowful look he gave her. Lyanna would be lying if she said the past year hadn't been horrific, but she knew Jon was doing his best to try to give her some semblance of a normal life.

She smiled softly, “yeah, I like it here. I like being close to Nana Cat, Papa Ned, and Aunt Arya. It’s strange that I lived most of my life without them in it. I kind of can’t imagine that now, isn’t that weird?”

Jon returned her look with a grin that didn’t quite meet his eyes, “it’s getting late, you should probably head to bed.”

Lyanna threw her head back and groaned dramatically, causing Jon to have to stifle a laugh. They said goodnight and suddenly, Jon found himself alone in their quiet apartment. He decided to pick up the empty pizza box and soda cans to take to the trash and noticed his phone charging on the kitchen counter, when the screen lit up.

_Hey, I know it’s late…just wanted to say again how nice it was to see you today._

Jon saw the message from Sansa was sent about 10 minutes ago. He ran a hand through his hair and debated what to send back. It was really nice seeing her again too. Sansa had come into his thoughts every now and again throughout the years but honestly, he never once thought she felt the same about him. He still doesn’t.

 _It was nice seeing you too, it’s definitely been a while._ He typed back.

Jon took a deep breath waiting for her response, figuring she had probably gone to bed, when three dots appeared at the bottom of his screen.

_Lyanna is super cute, I can totally see how you’re siblings._

Jon laughed to himself.

Sansa immediately replied _, Not because you’re cute! I mean you are, but I meant because you guys have similar personalities!_

_...I made it weird, sorry_

Jon felt his cheeks turn red and was grateful Lyanna had already gone to bed. Otherwise he would have been in for some serious mocking.

 _Haha, you didn’t make it weird…I get what you mean._ Jon replied, trying to convince himself not to say he thought she was cute too. Well, more than cute. The most attractive woman he has ever met.

At the top of Jon’s screen, he saw an incoming text from Arya and clicked on it.

 _What did you say to my sister, her face is beet red and she’s giggling like an idiot_?

Jon chose to ignore Arya in favor of receiving a reply from Sansa.

_I meant it though, if you ever need any help with Lyanna, I’m just a phone call away :)_

_I really appreciate that, I hope you have a good night Sans._

Jon decided to leave it there and head to bed before he said something he would regret, like ask her out on a date.

_Goodnight Jon._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all liked this chapter, thank you for reading and supporting!


	3. Sisters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in Sansa's POV and occurs somewhat simultaneously to the end of the last chapter. This one is a little shorter but the next chapter will be longer, thanks for reading!

Sansa watched Jon and Lyanna walk out the door and felt her shoulders release the tension they had been holding since she saw Jon in her mother’s kitchen this afternoon. She hadn’t seen her brother’s friend since she was a teenager. At the time, she hadn’t really taken much notice in him. How could she have been so blind? Sansa tried remembering the few interactions she had with him when they were younger and couldn’t remember if he had always been such an attractive guy.

Sansa had been so preoccupied with school and her then boyfriend that she’s not surprised she never paid him much attention. Sansa had followed Joffrey to college in the South and never saw Jon again, until today. She felt as though the wind were knocked out of her when he talked to her at brunch. He had a smooth yet rough voice that made her face flush. She hoped he hadn’t noticed it when talking to her. Then, she hadn’t been able to contain herself when Jon was spilling his heart out to her and ended up grabbing his incredibly large and manly hand. The type of hand she hadn’t been able to stop envisioning touching her skin… _oh boy_.

He was so kind too. She didn’t know much about his and Lyanna’s situation other than what had been told to her by her parents and Arya but she could tell the responsibility of raising his sister had been thrust upon him. Sansa couldn’t imagine having to raise Bran or Rickon at her age and felt immense respect for Jon.

Lost in her thoughts, Sansa didn’t hear her sister walk into the kitchen until she was practically standing hip to hip with her.

“Daydreaming about hot Jon are you,” Arya teased with a raised eyebrow.

Sansa clutched her chest to try and stop the hammering of her heart, “Jesus Arya, you have to stop sneaking up on me…and no, I was not,” she replied unconvincingly.

“Sure babe. Anyway, are you staying the night or heading home?” Her sister asked while grabbing a wine glass from the cupboard.

“I thought I would just head home. Why, are you staying here tonight?” Sansa mirrored Arya by grabbing a glass for herself.

“Yeah, Gendry is having some sort of game night with the guys. Normally, I don’t mind hanging out with them but tonight I would rather drink this bottle of wine with you and crash in my old bedroom,” Arya picked up the full bottle of wine from the rack and dangled it in front of Sansa’s face like a treat, while smiling.

Sansa smirked back at her sister and grabbed a wine screw.

The sisters sat in their parent’s living room watching some trashy television show that normally Arya wouldn’t be caught dead watching but she had managed to make a drinking game out of it, so was content to suffer.

“This time we take a sip every time she mentions how pretty she is,” Arya said while filling both their wine glasses.

Sansa purposefully was taking smaller sips than her sister, who seemed to be finishing her third glass. Sansa had no intention of waking up hungover, or worse, accidently drunk texting Jon.

“Sans, stop staring at your phone in longing and just text him for Christ sake. It’s the 21st century, the girl doesn’t need to wait for the guy to text her first,” Arya exasperated.

“I’m not waiting for Jon to text me, I’m looking at work emails,” she lied, unconvincingly, while scrolling through texts.

Arya stared at her dead on and arched an eyebrow, “I thought we weren’t going to lie to each other about boys anymore, babe.”

Sansa sighed heavily and laid her head back on the sofa she was sitting on across from her sister. She very much would like to text Jon right now but didn’t think it was a good idea for two reasons; one, she had already drunk too much wine, and two, she thought it might seem desperate. Since coming back North and ending things with her last boyfriend, she was trying to be self-sufficient and not rely on a man for her own happiness anymore. This also meant however, that Sansa Stark was quite lonely. Since high school she had been with Joffrey, and wasn’t really sure how to be alone.

“I don’t want him to think me desperate,” she answered honestly.

“Lovey, did you see how Jon was looking at you during brunch…talk about desperate,” Arya scoffed.

“He has his sister to worry about, he doesn’t need me interfering,” Sansa took a sip of her wine, not looking at her sister.

Arya sat up in her seat and leaned toward Sansa, “Jon and Lyanna have been through hell the past year. They are both trying to navigate what their new normal looks like, but through all of it, Jon has been trying to build a support network around Lyanna. Trust me when I say, you would not be interfering. You both deserve some happiness. That doesn’t mean you need to climb into bed with him tomorrow, although you know I would be completely supportive of that. Just hang out with each other, see where it goes.”

Sansa felt herself blush at the thought of jumping in bed with Jon but prayed Arya would pass it off as a side effect of the wine. Unfortunately, her sister was perceptive, even when drunk.

“Oh my god, you’re picturing it right now aren’t you?” Arya shouted.

Sansa hurriedly looked around the room to ensure neither of their brothers were hiding by the door, listening to their conversation, “no I am not!”

“Yes you are! I mean, can’t say I blame you; Jon is attractive and god knows Joffrey wasn’t exactly getting you off on a regular basis,” Arya uttered.

“Arya!” Sansa didn’t think her face could get any redder.

“Look me in the eye and tell me with a straight face that Joffrey satisfied you sexually,” her sister retorted.

Sansa hesitated, “I would rather not discuss my ex-boyfriend while talking about Jon in the same conversation.”

Arya look quite proud of herself, “I’ll take that as a no…”

Sansa rolled her eyes, “isn’t it weird for you to talk about Jon like this? I thought he was practically another brother for you.”

“Hey, Jon’s my best friend, don’t get wrong, but I’m not blind and I’m secure enough in my relationship to admit that my best friend is a hottie. Hell, I’m pretty sure even Gendry has a crush on Jon. You should see how he acts around him, it’s like his brain cells melt and he can’t get through a sentence without stuttering.”

“How are things with you and Gendry, anyway?” Sansa jumped at the chance to move the conversation away from Jon.

“Same old; we hang out, we fight, we fuck, we hang out some more- “

“Arya! I swear can’t we just have a normal conversation,” Sansa incensed.

This seemed to throw her drunk sister into a giggling fit.

“Fine, let’s go back to talking about Jon, then.”

Sansa slouched back into her seat, knowing Arya wouldn’t give up this conversation.

“His sister seems sweet, how old is she?”

“Lyanna turned 13 a couple months ago. I love that girl but she is definitely entering the hormonal teenager faze.”

Sansa laughed, “well good thing she has you to talk to, you’re still going through the hormonal teenager faze and you aren’t even a teenager anymore.”

Arya threw the wine cork across the room at her sister, missing horribly.

“Welp, you’re gonna be the one explaining to mum why there’s a red wine mark on the wall,” Sansa groaned.

“Gods, you’re no fun anymore, maybe you should text Jon and ask if you could crawl into his bed tonight, might relax you. I know orgasms relax me,” Arya said as she finished her latest glass of wine.

“Eww okay, on that note, I’m going to grab us some snacks, you’ll thank me tomorrow,” Sansa grabbed her phone and stood up to head into the kitchen.

She began popping popcorn in the microwave and pulled her phone out to see if anyone had text her. _Maybe one person in particular._ She bit her lip and felt a small hint of disappointment at only a few messages from Margaery. Her friend was trying to coordinate a lunch date in the coming days but was seeking restaurant approval from Sansa since Margaery was trying to eat vegan. Sansa didn’t presume this new diet would last very long. Her friend was a carnivore at heart.

Sansa opened up the text thread from earlier between her and Jon, thinking of what to text him. _Just a simple greeting and letting him know how nice it was to see him today should do._ The popcorn finished up and she placed it into two bowls for herself and Arya and walked back into the living room to find her sister had put on a movie.

“What are we watching?” She asked while handing over the bowl of popcorn.

“Clue,” Arya replied, suddenly grateful for the buttery, salty snack as it hit her wine filled stomach.

“I haven’t seen this movie since we were kids,” Sansa watched the opening credits, shoving popcorn into her mouth while keeping an eye on her phone. _Jon probably already went to bed, it’s pretty late_.

Sansa began to get lost in the film until she noticed her screen light up next to her.

_He replied._

She felt her heart skip a beat before reading what he wrote back.

_He said it was nice seeing me too...okay stay cool Sans, don’t make a fool of yourself. Also don’t let on you’re drunk._

Sansa found herself disobeying her own direct orders and let slip that she found Jon cute. She felt her face flush and hurriedly tried to smooth things out, only to find Jon saved her the embarrassment and felt a smile stretch across her face with a small giggle. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Arya watching her with a slight look of disgust.

“You’re texting Jon aren’t you?”

“…No.”

Arya looked at her incredulously, “oh, so if I were to text him right now, he would deny talking to you.”

Arya began texting away as Sansa leapt off the couch and bounded over to her sister. She felt like they were teenagers again fighting over something frivolous. She found herself laughing heartily as Arya struggled away from her sister’s grasp to send a message to Jon. They both stopped dead in each other’s hold as Arya’s phone dinged.

Arya aimed her screen away from Sansa’s gaze, “Jon says he would love for you to come over tonight on the condition that you bring your own handcuffs. Geez Sans, how kinky of a text did you send?”

Sansa shrieked, “What?!”

She snatched Arya’s phone from her as her sister fell to the floor, clutching her stomach, cackling. 

The text from Jon said no such thing. Why was she slightly disappointed by that? Sansa groaned and threw the phone onto Arya’s stomach and made her way upstairs to get ready for bed.

“Utterly smitten, you are!” Arya found herself unable to quit laughing at her prank.

Sansa stopped at the bottom of the staircase and looked on as her drunken sister laid on the floor, finally catching her breath, “I hope you enjoy sleeping down here tonight because I am not carrying you upstairs once you pass out.”

Sansa couldn’t help but smile as her sister lifted a lame thumbs up and blew her a kiss goodnight.


	4. Late Nights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Over 1000 hits on this fic! Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this fic I wasn't sure anyone would like.

It had taken a while for him to fall asleep. He couldn’t stop his heart from racing every time he re-read their text conversation and found himself dissecting it word by word until he finally passed out with his phone resting on his chest.

A couple hours later, Jon was startled awake but couldn’t discern what had actually woken him. He rolled over towards his nightstand to see it was only a little after one in the morning. He felt himself begin to drift back to sleep when he heard footsteps outside his door.

Now he was awake.

Jon took a minute to listen for any indication that someone had broken in, but all he heard was someone moving around in the next room. He swiftly threw on his glasses and shirt and made his way silently towards the bedroom door.

He slowly opened it and peered out into the darkness of their living room. Not seeing anyone, he stepped out and looked around, seeing everything still where it was supposed to be. That’s when he noticed the light on in Lyanna’s bedroom, shining through the sliver of her slightly ajar door. Jon cracked open his sister’s door wider to see what was going on.

“Hey, everything okay?” He began when Lyanna nearly jumped out of her skin, not expecting her brother to come into her room.

Lyanna stood next to her bed; pants and underwear balled up on the floor, trying to strip her bedding off, hastily. Jon took in the scene and felt his stomach hit the floor when he noticed the blood soaking her sheets. His sister’s face looked as pale as if she had seen a ghost and started to panic, “Jon! I’m-I’m so sorry, I can clean this, I swear, just-just go back to bed.”

Lyanna’s chin was trembling as Jon stepped toward her and pulled his sister into his arms. She immediately broke down into tears and buried her face against his chest. Jon had no idea what to even say to her. His mind began racing with a million thoughts; did she have a good understanding about what was going on? Did she know how to take care of it? Was she in pain? Had she woken up in terror and worried that he would be mad at her for ruining a cheap pair of sheets? How much did mom prepare her before she left them?

He took a deep breath and pulled himself together. If Lyanna saw him looking alarmed, it would only make her feel worse. Jon held her face in his hands and had her look at him. She was always so strong for being so young, but in this moment, Jon was reminded how young she really was. She was scared and needed her big brother to help her, so that’s what he was going to do. He heard Arya’s voice in his head telling him to pull his shit together and quickly came back to reality.

“Did mom ever talk to you about this?”

Jon felt his stomach sink when Lyanna shook her head and hastily tried to remember high school biology.

“Mom never did but, Aunt Arya talked to me about it a few months ago,” she stumbled with a blush spreading across her face.

Jon sighed in relief. Thank god for Arya. He would be giving her the biggest bear hug the next time he saw her whether she liked it or not.

Jon nodded, “okay, well…do you have any supplies for it?” He tried to will the blush on his own cheeks to stop. This was totally normal and Lyanna didn’t need to feel like it was something to be ashamed of or anything she felt she had to hide from him.

“Yeah,” she muttered and walked over to her closet, pulling out a bag with a few items in it, “Arya gave me some stuff just in case.”

“Okay, good. Why don’t I go run you a hot shower so you can clean up a little bit,” he looked around, “and here,” Jon walked over to Lyanna’s bottom dresser drawer and pulled out an old pair of sweatpants, “why don’t you take these to change into?”

“But, what about my sheets and those,” Lyanna asked pointing her head towards the crumpled up bloody pants and underwear on the floor.

Jon smiled softly, “don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it, okay?”

Lyanna nodded and kept her eyes looking down towards her feet.

“Hey, don’t stress. It’s natural, alright? It doesn’t faze me one bit, I promise. I just want to make sure you’re okay. Are you in any pain?”

“I feel like shit to be honest,” she replied, clutching her abdomen.

Jon walked into their shared bathroom and turned the shower on to warm it up for her, then grabbed her a few pain relievers and a glass of water. Lyanna walked awkwardly past him and placed her clean clothes on the counter next to the shower, then popped the ibuprofen.

“All set?” Jon asked before he was about to leave her in peace and take care of the laundry.

“Um, well, the um,” Lyanna flushed, “the underwear I changed into…are stained now too.”

His sister looked as though she wanted the ground to swallow her whole, so Jon jumped in quick, “no worries, I’ll just turn around and you can take them off and leave them on the floor once you hop in the shower.”

Lyanna nodded in agreement and undressed once Jon turned around. He made sure she was in the shower with the curtain drawn before turning back around and swiftly grabbed her second pair of soiled underwear off the floor without display. _God, women deal with some shit._

He went back into his sister’s bedroom and began taking the sheets off the bed when he noticed there was a tiny blood stain on the mattress as well. Jon realized he wasn’t sure how to get the stains out of the materials without them being permanently ruined. He dropped everything in a pile on the floor and walked back into his room to grab his phone. He dialed Arya first but cursed when it went to voicemail. He tried again, to no avail.

Jon hesitated when his finger rested over Sansa’s name. It was the middle of the night and he didn’t want to wake her with his problems but she _had_ said to call her if he needed anything for Lyanna. He sighed, running a hand through his hair, and walked back into Lyanna’s room, knowing that if his sister heard him on the phone telling anyone what happened, she would be mortified. He sat on the bed and pressed Sansa’s name, feeling his palms start to sweat when it began ringing. Jon almost hung up after the sixth ring when a groggy but feminine voice answered, “hello?”

“Sansa! Look, I am so so sorry to call you at…” Jon looked at his screen, “two in the morning, but I promise it’s important,” he cringed.

He heard rustling on the other end, “no it’s okay, did something happen? Are you and Lyanna alright?”

Jon caught the concern in her tone and quickly answered, “yeah, we’re okay. A little scarred maybe…Lya got her first period,” Jon felt his face flush again. _Get it together Snow._

“Oh no, how’s she doing? Does she have products or do you need me to go get her some?” Sansa inquired sweetly, now fully awake.

Jon felt his chest squeeze at how thoughtful this woman was. Offering to go to the store in the middle of the night for his little sister so he wouldn’t have to leave her alone.

“No, that’s okay. Arya gave her some stuff a few months ago, I think it should last her for a little while…I think. I was just calling because her sheets and clothes are stained. I tried to Google how to get the blood out but everything keeps saying stain remover, which we don’t have. I was wondering if you knew any other way to get the blood out…since, you know…you’re a-a girl,” Jon stammered, hitting his hand against his forehead.

Thankfully, he heard Sansa giggle on the other end, “correct assumption Jon. Yes, I am a girl with a fully functioning uterus. Ummm, do you have any hydrogen peroxide?”

Jon walked into the kitchen and looked through the cabinet under the sink, “yeah we do.”

“Put a good amount of it on the stains, then soak the material in cold water. Don’t throw them in the laundry until you’ve soaked the stains, that’ll just set them. If that doesn’t work, mix a solution of bleach and cold water, mostly water, and let them soak in that. Unless she’s in love with the underwear that got ruined, I would just throw them out since I’m guessing they are a bit worse for the wear. But, for the pants and sheets, just try and soak them overnight.”

Jon felt sudden relief, as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, “thank you so much, you’re a life saver.”

“Poor baby, does she have cramps at all?” Sansa asked.

“Yeah, she said she feels like shit. She’s taking a hot shower right now and I gave her some pain killers,” he replied while beginning to fill the kitchen sink with cold water, “also, some of it got on the mattress, any idea what to do there?”

“Just dab some bleach and water on it, that should come out okay. If not, no one will ever know it’s there. I hope she feels better, don’t be afraid to give her a higher dose of medicine if the pain is unbearable, it won’t hurt her. Do you have a heating pad or hot water bottle?”

Jon tried to remember the contents of their apartment quickly, “I don’t think so. I know my mom had one but I think it might have gotten thrown out in the move.”

“Okay, I’ll stop by tomorrow and drop one off, along with some goodies for her. Just text me your address.”

Jon felt his heart flutter at the thought of seeing her again, “oh no, Sansa, I couldn’t ask you to do that. I’ll just pick one up the next time I’m out.”

“Nonsense. It’s no trouble at all. She’ll probably be in pain for a few days, I’ll get one tomorrow. Give her a big hug tonight and just be there for her,” he could tell she was hesitating, “and Jon?”

His breath quickened, “yeah?”

“You’re a great big brother, she’s lucky to have you.”

Jon found himself speechless and heard the sound of the shower being turned off, “thank you, Sansa. Um, I think Lyanna’s getting out of the shower so I should probably go. Goodnight again.”

“Bye, Jon.”

He could have sworn he heard a grin in her voice.

Jon put Lyanna’s sheets and pants into the filled sink and threw out the underwear, hoping his sister wouldn’t be too upset. He leaned on the kitchen counter that faced the rest of their apartment, taking a moment to breathe when Lyanna walked out of the bathroom. She looked at him, somewhat shyly, while fisting her long shirt in her hands.

“Why don’t you sleep in my bed tonight and I’ll take the couch? It will be a while before your sheets dry.”

Lyanna’s gaze fell to the floor, “I don’t want to kick you out of your bed, I can sleep on the couch.”

Jon smirked and walked over to this sister, “you know I’m not going to let you sleep out here. Come on, I’ll tuck you in.”

Lyanna climbed into Jon’s large bed and immediately noticed how comfortable it was. Suddenly, she didn’t mind kicking him out of it so much. Jon sat on the edge and put a hand to her cheek, “you feeling any better, love?” He asked, voice tired from being up all night.

“A little, everything just feels really sore.”

“Well, if you need anything tonight, come get me, okay?” Jon stood up to leave when he heard Lyanna call for him.

“Wait! Uh, do you-do you think you could rub my back for a few minutes? Like mom used to?” She asked rather timidly.

Jon beamed at her and came back over to sit on the bed. Lyanna turned over so she faced away from her brother and settled in. She felt her cramps begin to lessen as Jon rubbed her back. Her mom used to stay with her and give her back rubs all night when she would get sick.

Lyanna exhaled sadly, “I miss mom.”

Jon felt his heart sink, “me too, kiddo.”

Jon let Lyanna sleep in much of the morning while he finished her laundry from the night before. He was pleasantly surprised that Sansa’s method had worked and the stains had come out of the bedsheets and Lyanna’s pajama bottoms. Jon took the morning to clean up the apartment, knowing Sansa would be stopping by later. He found himself checking his phone often for any update from her on when she was coming over. Jon thought about reaching out to her himself but didn’t want to seem too pushy. Maybe she decided she didn’t want to come over, maybe she saw the part of town they lived in and decided it wasn’t worth it.

As Jon was silently spiraling in the kitchen with a mop in his hand, Lyanna came out of his bedroom, wrapped tightly in a blanket, and plopped herself on the couch with a groan.

He set down the mop handle against the counter and walked towards the lump on the cushions, “morning sunshine, can I get you anything? You hungry…need more medicine?”

Lyanna looked up at him pitifully, “can you make me some ginger tea?”

“Sure, sweetheart, want some toast or waffles?”

His sister perked up at the mention of the sugary treat Jon couldn’t possibly believe was considered a breakfast food.

Jon smirked, “two waffles and some tea coming up.”

“Joooonnn I feel like I’m dying,” Lyanna groaned dramatically.

Jon had to press his lips together to keep from bursting out laughing and pissing off Lyanna even more than she already was, “you’ll be alright, Lya.”

“That’s what Aunt Arya said but I think you all are conspiring against me to gaslight me into thinking it’s not as bad as it really is,” she huffed.

He put the kettle on for her tea and took the waffles out of the freezer-not as good as homemade but he never professed to be a chef, “you talked to Arya?”

“I texted her last night after I got out of the shower, I just really wanted to talk to her…are you mad?”

Jon whipped around to face his sister, who was peaking up over the back of the couch, “of course I’m not mad. Well, not at you anyway. I tried calling her several times last night to ask how to get the stains out of your sheets but she wouldn’t pick up, I had to call Sansa instead…”

He knew immediately he might have messed up when Lyanna’s face turned pale and angry at the same time, “you told Sansa?!”

“Um, uh-well, yeah…but only because I didn’t want you to be upset about your pajamas and sheets. I just called to see if she knew how to get the blood out-” he stammered.

“Jon! I can’t believe you told her!” Lyanna droned, placing her forearm over her eyes as if to shield herself from her own embarrassment.

Jon hurried back over to the living room to face his sister, “look, I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to embarrass you. I truly did try calling Arya but apparently she only will pick up the phone if it’s you calling.”

Lyanna slightly smirked at that.

Jon sat on the coffee table in front of the couch where his sister was in a silent debate with herself whether or not she had the energy to yell at her brother.

“I really am sorry. I can tell her you don’t want any visitors today,” he started.

She peaked out from behind her arm, “what do you mean?”

Jon hesitated, wondering if this was only going to piss her off further, “Sansa offered to grab you a heating pad from the store and drop it off to help with the pain.”

Lyanna was suddenly reminded how much her abdomen hurt and the thought of a warm compress on it was enough to make her want to melt into the cushions.

“Maybe she can stop by for a little bit,” she responded softly.

Jon smiled and leaned over to ruffle his sister’s hair, to which she promptly pushed his hand away.

Sansa found herself walking into Jon and Lyanna’s apartment complex slightly anxious. This was the first time she would be spending any real time with Jon. She began second guessing her decision to come over and perhaps should have just sent Arya over with the care package of goodies instead. What if Lyanna was upset that Jon had invited her over? What if Jon had only texted her his address because she had been so persistent last night and didn’t actually want her there? Her head was beginning to hurt with her thoughts ping ponging back and forth.

Sansa took a deep breath and walked into their building, deciding it was too late to back out now. She had text Jon when she parked her car in the complex garage letting him know she had arrived. Jon text back saying to just knock and come in-the door would be unlocked.

Sansa continually had to tell herself that this wasn’t a big deal. She was only going to stay as long as she was welcome, even if that was only a few minutes. As she waited for the elevator, she also was trying to convince herself that she was doing this for Lyanna, not because she really wanted to see Jon…

“Okay, 302, 303, 304,” Sansa muttered to herself as she strolled down the long hallway leading from the elevator, looking for Jon and Lyanna’s apartment.

Standing in front of the old door stamped ‘305’ Sansa knocked gently and immediately heard a “come in” from the man that made her palms sweat and breath quicken.

Sansa wasn’t sure what to expect from their home, but it certainly wasn’t the cozy small space decorated with soft lights and inviting furniture. She saw Jon’s head turn around from where he sat on the couch and the wide smile that went to all the way to his eyes once he noticed her come in.

“Hey,” he said with a shy raise of his hand.

“Hey yourself,” she replied, timidly walking over to the living area with her bags of goodies in hand.

The sight she found made her heart melt- Jon was lying on the couch with his arms wrapped around his sister, who was lying next to him, all snuggled and warm in a blanket, with her face pressed into Jon’s chest. Sansa briefly found herself wishing she could switch places with Lyanna but quickly pushed away the traitorous thoughts. Lyanna lifted her gaze to Sansa and shot her a shy smile.

“How are you feeling, babe?”

“Like shit, being a woman sucks,” Lyanna huffed.

Sansa couldn’t help but chuckle and think how much Lyanna reminded her of Arya.

“It definitely does sometimes. I got you a hot water bottle though…and perhaps some other treats,” Sansa responded with a wink.

Lyanna’s head immediately perked up in interest.

Jon shifted to sit up, “how about I go get the hot water bottle ready for you?”

“Yes please, it feels like my uterus is trying to self-destruct.”

Sansa smiled, took a seat on the coffee table, and began digging through the bag, trying to distract herself from how hot Jon looked wearing glasses as he took the water bottle from her.

She pulled out a bag of chocolate truffles and gourmet caramel popcorn, handing them over to the miserable teenager on the sofa.

“You got these for me? These are expensive,” Sansa noticed how Lyanna’s voice slightly trembled while holding the sweets.

“Don’t worry about it. I know how shitty it feels, don’t feel bad about pampering yourself when you have your period, okay?”

Lyanna once again flushed red and sat up to hug Sansa.

“Thank you.”

When the two pulled back, Sansa remembered the contents of the second bag, “Oh! Here, I got you some more products-a couple different brands for you to try. I wasn’t sure how much Arya gave you.”

“I really appreciate it, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to asking Jon to go to the pharmacy for me,” she uttered quietly.

Sansa laughed, “if you ever need someone to take you on an emergency tampon run, just give me a call. In fact, let me give you my number now.”

Jon stood in the kitchen watching the interaction between the girls, feeling as though something in his soul was beginning to mend. He had felt so guilty that he was the only one his sister had to turn to last night-it was nice to see someone loving on his sister as much as he did. When Sansa walked into the apartment in what looked like an older gray sweatshirt and yoga pants, hardly any make up on and hair down around her shoulders, he felt content that she was comfortable enough with herself and around him to not feel the need to dress up. He was still trying to figure out how she looked more beautiful like this than in the dress she wore to brunch.

Once Lyanna’s hot water bottle was ready, he brought it over to her and watched as she placed it on her lower abdomen with a relieved sigh.

Sansa looked as though she was starting to feel uncomfortable in her own skin and moved to stand up, “I should probably head out, give you two some peace and quiet.”

Jon interjected, “please, stay for dinner…uh-I um-I’m not the greatest cook but I was going to order some take out for us-Lya’s favorite Thai restaurant delivers.”

Her immediate thought was to reject his offer out of some strange instinct to not let herself get too involved, but as she looked into Jon’s soft eyes and his sister’s pleading smile, she found she couldn’t resist.

“I would love that, Jon.”


	5. Movie Night

Jon and Sansa were sat on opposite ends of the couch finishing up their plates of food. Lyanna hadn’t had much of an appetite and could only stomach some rice and noodles before she began to feel nauseous and called it quits. Currently, she had her head on Sansa’s lap and feet laying in Jon’s. To say the night so far had been awkward, would be an understatement. Jon couldn’t put a sentence together when speaking to Sansa to save his life. He kept saying the wrong thing and stumbling over his words. To make matters worse, every time he did so, Lyanna would throw him strange looks.

Thankfully, Sansa seemed to find it funny and would swiftly put him at ease by answering his stupid questions or comments without much thought. They were in the middle of watching the 7th Star Wars film-Lyanna’s favorite. She was quite horrified to find out Sansa had yet to watch it and demanded they put it on during dinner. Honestly, Jon was grateful for the distraction-he didn’t think he could keep a comfortable conversation going with Sansa while Lyanna was still in the room.

As he scraped his plate clean, he noticed Sansa looking over at him out of the corner of her eye. Jon turned towards her and smiled when her cheeks began to turn pink. Lyanna pulled their attention when she reached over to the coffee table to grab her bag of gourmet popcorn Sansa gave her, to tear into.

“Oh you didn’t have the stomach to eat dinner but you can eat a bucketload of caramel popcorn?” Jon teased.

“Shut it, asshole,” Lyanna quipped while kicking Jon’s leg lightly.

“Language!” Jon shouted, smacking her leg back.

Sansa chuckled, “play nice you two, Lyanna don’t kick your brother, Jon don’t argue with a woman on her period.”

Both Jon and Lyanna looked at each other and keeled over laughing. Sansa soon joined in until they were all wiping tears from the corners of their eyes.

“Okay everybody hush, this is my favorite part!”

Jon looked back over towards Sansa, once again, catching her gaze. Only this time, he didn’t rush to look away. Instead, he took in her soft blue eyes and long red hair that framed her face, accentuating her already beautiful features. She seemed to be equally taking him in, making Jon wish he had put in his contacts and done something different with his hair-maybe put on a nicer shirt.

His worries melted away when Sansa winked at him, making his heart skip. She returned her focus down to Lyanna lying in her lap and started running her hands through his sister’s hair. Jon tried his hardest to watch the rest of the film but found himself consumed with Sansa-her scent, her energy, everything that made her, her. He still couldn’t believe her kindness last night and the fact that she spent half her day here, in their tiny apartment, lazing about.

After a few minutes, he noticed Lyanna’s breathing got heavy and looked down to see her eyes closed. Sansa was still playing with Lya’s hair while watching the movie with rapt attention.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lyanna fall asleep before the Kylo and Rey lightsaber battle.”

“Spoiler alert!” Sansa whispered jokingly.

Jon looked at the clock and noticed it was already past nine.

“I better go bring her to bed,” Jon stood and leaned over Sansa, trying not to pay attention to how close their faces were and the fruity scent gracing her hair. He pulled Lyanna into his arms and cradled her against his chest, causing her to stir slightly.

“Did Rey whoop Kylo’s ass?” She muttered, sleepily.

“Oh yeah, whooped it good, love.” Jon walked into his sister’s room and carefully placed her on her bed, pulling the covers over her to tuck her in.

“Goodnight honey. If you need me tonight, come get me,” he soothed with a kiss to her forehead.

Jon closed the bedroom door softly behind him and noticed Sansa had grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and placed it over her legs. Jon wished with his entire being he was bold enough to get under the blanket with her but instead, he caught himself staring at her soft beauty. The television was the only thing casting light into the room, causing her features to be highlighted in the darkness. The movie was almost over and Jon found himself hoping she wouldn’t want to leave right away. As much as he loved the evening he had spent with Sansa and his sister, he didn’t exactly have much opportunity to talk to her.

“Can I get you anything to drink? Tea? Coffee?” Jon offered, still standing awkwardly outside of Lyanna’s door with his hands shoved in his pockets.

“A tea would be lovely, thank you,” she smiled.

Jon went into the kitchen to put the kettle on and take a few breaths before daring to go sit back down on the couch next to the woman he definitely had a crush on…all alone…in the dark.

“How do you take your tea?” He called over to her.

“Splash of milk and two sugars.”

Once he made their tea, he walked back over to Sansa with two cups in hand and sat back down.

“We can turn this off now that Lya’s in bed if you want.”

Sansa looked over to him slightly shocked, “no way! The end is the best part. You finally get to see Luke Skywalker.”

Jon turned towards her, the wheels spinning in his head, “I thought you hadn’t seen this before.”

Sansa shrugged her shoulders, “I only told Lyanna that because she looked so excited to show me the movie.”

Jon once again felt his heart melt at Sansa’s kindness towards his sister. He sat back, feeling more relaxed than he had expected and was content to watch the rest of the movie with her.

As the credits began to roll, Sansa shifted towards Jon, tea cup in hand, and tucked her feet under her, “you and Lyanna seem to have settled in, your apartment is really nice.”

Jon felt his face flush, “thanks, it costs more than it should in this part of town but so far it’s working out. It’s not too far from Lyanna’s school or your parent’s house…”

“What about work? Do you have much of a commute?” Sansa immediately felt as though she asked something she shouldn’t have when Jon let out a harsh scoff.

“Yeah…that’s somewhat a point of contention right now. I haven’t been able to find a job here yet. I’ve been using what little money I got for mom’s house to pay our bills but honestly, we’re kind of on a timer now. Your parents, bless them, have offered to have Lya and I stay with them for a while until I can get back on my feet. I just don’t want to uproot my sister again, after everything.” Jon looked as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders and Sansa wanted desperately to ease some of his worry.

“What do you do? Maybe I can try to find some leads for you?”

Jon looked over to the wall behind their television, where three portraits were hung, his favorites from a collection he shot the previous year, “I’m a uh…a free-lance photographer. I mainly shoot nature stuff for magazines, websites, promotional shoots…haven’t really had any luck booking gigs since moving. It’s a much more competitive market here for that type of work. There’s a lot of better photographers here that have been in the business longer than me. Doesn’t leave much room for an up and comer. I have been interviewing with this one lifestyle company who’s looking for a photographer they don’t have to pay premium price for, but I don’t think I’m going to book the job.”

Sansa took a sip of her tea, “why not?”

Jon swiped a hand through his hair, “I may have stretched the truth a bit and told them I had experience shooting what they were looking for. Now they’re asking that I send over samples from that session before having me sign the contract…”

Sansa put the pieces together, “buuut those don’t exist, because you didn’t actually shoot what they want, before?”

Jon sighed, “exactly.”

“Well, maybe I can help with the shoot,” Sansa excitedly turned her body towards Jon, sitting cross legged, “you can use me for the session. I’m free for the next few days and then you would have something to send them.”

Jon shook his head, “Sansa no, I can’t ask you to do that-”

“It’s no trouble at all! I would love to help…of course, I’ve never modeled before. You probably want someone much thinner and prettier, with experience.” Sansa’s face fell, remembering all the insults Joffrey had thrown at her over the years. Jon quickly inched closer to her on the couch and sprawled his arm over the back of it, almost to the point of touching her shoulder, before he thought better of it.

“No no Sansa. I promise you that’s not it at all. I would be honored to be able to photograph you…I just wouldn’t feel comfortable asking you to model what they’re looking for…” Jon provided cryptically, hoping she would just drop it there.

“What, would I have to pose nude?” Sansa giggled with a blush.

Jon’s face scrunched and desperately tried to get the image of Sansa sprawled out nude in front of him while he took photos of her out of his head.

“It’s a boudoir shoot,” he finally said, looking pained.

Sansa paused for a moment, “like…lingerie?”

Jon took a deep breath and with closed eyes began to explain, thinking it easier than having to look her in the face, “the job is for a new online magazine whose goal is to promote brands that are inclusive in what they sell and the models they use. It’s apparently anything from underwear to skin care products.”

Sansa sat deep in thought, trying to convince herself to not jump at the opportunity to put on sexy lingerie and model for Jon Snow…

“I mean, I don’t want to make _you_ uncomfortable but, I’m still okay with doing the shoot if you are. What are friends for right?” Sansa shyly laughed and hoped she wasn’t being too obvious. She could tell Jon wasn’t exactly in the right place to date anybody. That was okay. She totally understood, what with just moving and trying to raise a thirteen-year-old, she couldn’t really expect him to have any kind of feelings for her. To him, she was probably just Robb and Arya’s sister who never paid him any mind when they were teenagers. She also tried not to dwell on how sad that fact made her feel.

Jon stuttered, “R-right, what are friends for.” He couldn’t deny the small part of him that felt discouraged. Perhaps he had been misinterpreting the signals Sansa had been sending him. Maybe she did see them as just friends.

“Do you-erm-do you have anything you could wear to the shoot?” Jon wanted the ground to swallow him whole and had never felt more like a pervert.

Thankfully, Sansa had a knack for putting him at ease and sensing his discomfort, “my friend Margaery and her brother own this bougie boutique downtown. She’ll probably have some pieces I can wear to the shoot. Do you have a space to do it?”

“I’m sure I can find a studio to rent, I can let you know what date will work,” he wavered, “Sansa…I am serious about wanting you to feel comfortable. Would Margaery maybe be amendable to coming to the shoot with you, since she’s styling you anyway?”

Sansa could have cried at the consideration this man was affording her. She had never had a man in her life care so much about how she felt and her own well-being besides her brothers and father.

“I bet I could twist her arm,” she smirked.

The front door suddenly burst open and a giant white dog came running in with a trailing younger man being pulled from the rear.

“Ghost! Calm down boy.” Jon leapt up from the couch and grabbed hold of the dog’s collar before he had a chance to jump on Sansa.

“Sorry Jon, Ghost got pretty hyped once he got out of the car and saw the building,” Theon explained, still trying to catch his breath from being pulled by the 100-pound animal up 3 flights of stairs.

“No worries Theon, thanks for taking him the past couple days. I’m sure he had fun at the dog park.” Jon pet Ghost behind his head, trying to calm him.

“Yeah, I had to pull him off of three lady huskies, good thing you got him fixed right?”

“Okay, thank you Theon, I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Jon interjected trying to get Theon out of the apartment as quickly as possible before he said anything embarrassing in front of Sansa.

Theon’s eyes quickly found the redheaded beauty sitting on Jon’s couch, “oh, sorry Jon-didn’t realize you had company. I won’t interrupt your night any further,” Theon strolled back over to the front door, “remember to use protection you two!” With that, the front door shut, leaving them in awkward silence.

Jon rubbed the back of his neck, “sorry about Theon, he can be an idiot sometimes.”

Sansa looked over to him with rosy cheeks and soft eyes causing Jon to feel a reaction in his body like lightning from head to toe.

To distract himself, he dragged Ghost over to Lyanna’s room, “here boy, go sleep with your sister, I’m sure she could use the cuddles tonight.”

“What kind of dog is he? He looks like the malamutes our family has but…a lot bigger,” she chuckled.

“He’s half malamute, half wolf…Ghost’s a lump most of the time though.”

Sansa stood and folded the blanket she had grabbed from the back of the couch and fixed the cushions, “I better be going before I’m too tired to drive. Feel free to text me once you find a studio space and I’ll talk to Marg tomorrow about the styling.”

Jon once again placed his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching out and giving her a hug, “listen, thanks so much for what you did for Lyanna today and for being so willing to help me out with this job. I don’t think you know what it means to me.” He walked with her over to the front door where she grabbed her bag and shoes. They were impossibly close to each other when Sansa bent down to lace up her shoes. Jon took an awkward step away from her as she inadvertently was kneeling a little too close to his lower half, causing those traitorous thoughts to return to his mind.

Sansa finished tying her shoes and stood chest to chest with the handsome, curly haired man, wearing glasses that reminded her of a very specific fantasy she had in college involving a sexy professor. She took the risk of giving Jon a quick peck on the cheek, “I’m happy to do it, call me if you need anything tonight.”

With that, she took her hurried leave, not daring to look back at Jon, for fear she would cast her morals aside and jump into his arms.

Jon himself, felt as though his feet were made of concrete. His cheek was aflame with the aftermath of Sansa’s kiss-brain reeling with things he wanted from her tonight, none of them, exactly wholesome.

Sansa woke up to the smell of coffee brewing and realized Margaery had gotten up before her-a rarity in their household. She threw on an extra large t-shirt and decided to forego pants, knowing she just wanted a quick cup of coffee before she took a shower. She stepped out of her bedroom and walked into their kitchen where she was met with the knowing stare of her best friend.

“Busy night? Didn’t expect you to get in so late,” she smirked while taking a sip of coffee.

“I just hung out with Jon and his sister. We were watching a movie so I didn’t get in until around 11.” Sansa did everything except meet Marg’s eyes, knowing a blush was forming on her face.

“Did hanging out involve making out?” Marg asked with a raised brow.

Sansa grabbed a coffee mug from the overhead cabinet, “no, it did not.”

“Shame. From how much you were talking to me about him, I was hoping one of you would make a move.”

“We’re just friends Marg, no one is going to be kissing anyone,” Sansa sighed.

Margaery looked at her unconvinced, “can’t you let yourself be happy just this once? After Joffrey you deserve to have dear Jon going down on you multiple times a night.”

Sansa did everything in her power to get that image out of her head, knowing that it would now be added to her list of dreams about Jon she would be having. She finished making her coffee, very aware that her best friend had not moved an inch, “I do have a favor to ask of you…”

“Yes dear girl, I will gladly ask Jon to come over for a late night booty call since I know you won’t,” her friend giggled.

Sansa cringed, “okay, please don’t ever say booty call again…I was wondering if I could borrow your styling expertise and maybe some pieces from the boutique?”

Margaery looked on expectantly, “go on, what’s this all about?”

She hesitated, “I may have offered to model a shoot for Jon so he can book a job.” Sansa was trying to end this conversation quickly.

Her friend’s face beamed, giddily, “what kind of shoot, my love?”

Sansa covered her face with her hands, “a boudoir shoot.”

When she finally looked through her fingers, she wondered if it was possible for Margaery’s jaw to actually hit the floor.

With a stony face, Sansa turned to walk out the kitchen, “I’m going to take a shower now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this where I thought my fic was going...Nope  
> Am I mad this is where it went...Nope


	6. The Session

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: for mentions/descriptions of a past abusive relationship in this chapter
> 
> Here are the pieces Sansa wears for the shoot in case anyone is interested :)
> 
> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/361976888798587964/  
> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/613826624198615992/  
> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/42010209010907478/

Sansa could feel the sweat begin to accumulate on her brow as she and Margaery walked into the large brick building where Jon had found a suitable studio space to rent last minute for the shoot. She had hardly slept an hour last night after Jon text her, letting her know he had booked the space and what time she could show up. Why had she agreed to do this again?

Margaery looked absolutely giddy carrying suit bags that housed the lingerie she would soon be modeling for Jon Snow. Marg hadn’t let her sneak a peak at the pieces but had promised Sansa they were classy and beautiful. She didn’t doubt her friend had her best interest at heart and would never put her in anything that would downright embarrass her. Even so, Sansa had spent quite some time in the bathroom last night getting herself ready for modeling lingerie.

They both walked into the building and looked at the text Jon had sent with the information on where the studio was.

“Top floor…fancy,” Margaery smirked.

Sansa swallowed heavily and made her way over to the elevators. The building seemed to house different offices, dance studios, and galleries. Once they reached the top floor, Marg noticed Sansa’s face had begun to turn pale and took her hand in her own, “listen love, this is going to be fun and I’ll be right with you the whole time,” Margaery winked at her, “as long as you want me there of course.”

Sansa chuckled in relief and allowed her friend to walk her down the hallway until they reached a large wooden door at the end. Marg knocked, then waited on baited breath for Jon to open it.

Instead, they heard a shout from inside, “Come in!”

Sansa was not expecting the exquisite space they walked into; it was a large room with near floor to ceiling windows on one wall, the others covered in brick, dark wood paneling covered the floor, and against one brick wall across from the windows, was a large, beautiful bed made up in clean white linens. Across the room was an old-fashioned clawfoot tub and bench-like sofa covered in maroon velvet next to it. She found herself needing to catch her breath after taking in the stunning space. It felt calm and welcoming…much like Jon, whom was crouched in the center of the room with gear bags, setting up one of his cameras, wearing a white button-down shirt and gray trousers. Unlike the previous times she had seen him, his hair was down and not up in a bun.

“Afternoon, ladies.” Jon’s smile reached his eyes once he looked over to see Sansa.

Sansa suddenly remembered the woman to her left, “Oh Jon, this is my friend Margaery.”

Jon stood up, brushing his hands off on his shirt and held it out to greet Marg, “nice to meet you, thank you so much for helping out today, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.”

Margaery beamed, “of course, anything for my dear Sansa here,” she leaned in towards Jon, fake whispering, “our girl’s a little nervous.”

Sansa elbowed Margaery, gazing at her in horror.

Jon laughed, “if I’m being honest, I’m a little nervous too. I haven’t shot much with people. I mainly used to do nature scenes, so you’re not alone.” Sansa could tell that last bit was directed at her-Jon let his eyes reach hers for a split second before returning back to Margaery.

“So, the client told me their brand is all about real people and inclusivity. I was thinking maybe we could do a natural look today-not too much makeup or crazy hairstyling?”

Margaery nodded, “sounds good to me, is there a place where I can get her ready?”

Jon quickly turned, “there’s a little room back there with a vanity and a clothing rack.”

Marg took hold of her friend’s hand again and led her to the door in the back. Inside the room, they found a large vanity with a mirror, metal racks to hang the garment bags, two chairs, and a small sofa.

“Alright love, why don’t we get your hair and makeup done first, then we’ll get you into the first outfit.”

Sansa held her arms folded around her body, effectively hugging herself, and asked timidly, “um-how much does the first piece show?”

“It’s a bodysuit, so you’re fairly covered in lingerie terms, why?”

She hesitated, suddenly very interested in the wooden floor, “I know Jon said this is supposed to be a natural shoot but I was wondering if you could maybe cover the scars on my thighs?”

Sansa wouldn’t dare look up at her best friend, knowing she would see pity in her eyes. Only Margaery and Arya had seen the extent of what Joffrey had done to her body and Arya had only seen because she accidently walked in on Sansa changing once and she had no other choice than to tell her sister. It was one of the only times she had ever seen Arya cry. Sansa didn’t think she had it in her to show Jon that part of her today, not when he was asking her to already be so vulnerable with him.

As though Marg could sense her thoughts spiraling, she closed the gap between them and threw her arms around her best friend, “of course I can.”

Sansa took a deep breath, composed herself, and stripped down to her underwear as Margaery began to lay out the hair and makeup products on the table top. Thankfully, Marg had brought a robe for her to wear, so she threw it on and sat down in the chair placed in front of the mirror. Margaery curled Sansa’s hair in soft waves and pinned it so it all hung over one shoulder. Next, she put moisturizer on her friend’s face, some light blush, mascara, and nude lipstick. Sansa looked in the mirror and paused at Marg’s work-she actually thought she looked pretty.

“Alright babe, we should put the first outfit on you before I do your legs. Otherwise makeup will be all over it and Loras will have a conniption.”

Sansa watched as Margaery walked over to the garment bag and carefully pulled out the first piece. She was pleasantly surprised to see the green, satin, bodysuit her friend held up. It was fairly modest for lingerie-plunging neckline aside. Marg helped her into it and tied the green bow together that cinched at the waist. Sansa pulled at the lace that framed the bottom of the suit, desperately trying to get it to cover her thighs a bit more.

Marg turned her towards the mirror and held her waist, “you look beautiful, Sans.”

Sansa felt her face flush and had never been more grateful for her best friend. Margaery smiled softly at her and looked through her makeup bag for a brush and foundation.

“Spread your legs a bit for me,” Marg asked, crouching down in front her, carefully placing her hand on Sansa’s thigh, knowing how self-conscious the girl was about anyone seeing her scars. Margaery felt privileged that her friend felt comfortable enough to have her face an inch away from them.

Sansa flinched when Margaery’s brush touched her upper thigh. Even though she was being gentle about it, Sansa could swear she still felt them burning every now and again. After a minute or two, Marg pulled her head back slightly to get a look at her work, “tell me what you think love, they look more like stretch marks now than scars.”

Sansa looked down at her thighs, seeing what Margaery was talking about-they were still visible, but definitely didn’t look as bad as they normally did.

“Thank you.”

Marg gave her a peck on the cheek, “don’t mention it.”

Sansa put lotion on her arms and legs, then pulled the robe around herself and held it together tightly as she finally found the courage to go back into the main room, where Jon looked like he was finishing up lighting the studio. She noticed the shy look on his face when he spotted her coming towards him.

“I figured we could first shoot in front of these gorgeous windows. I want to do some from the side so you’ll be lit by the sun and then do some backlit shots.”

Sansa nodded, once again overwhelmed by nerves at having to be photographed in next to nothing by the man she harbored deep feelings for. Jon directed her on how he wished to pose her for the first few pictures and then came the time to hand her robe over to Margaery.

Jon thought of himself as a good guy-someone who could remain professional and calm during most situations. But when Sansa Stark sheds her robe and reveals the green satin and lace bodysuit beneath, he has to take a deep breath and reign in his inappropriate thoughts. Sansa was being completely vulnerable with him and he had no business betraying that trust by gawking at her long legs or leering at her breasts that were made visible by the deep, plunging neckline.

Jon cleared his throat, “okay, can you sit on the window sill for me and look down onto the street?” He snapped a few photos, then instructed her to lean against the dead space of wall between two of the windows, covered in brick and look down towards the floor. Jon could not get over how beautiful she looked with her hair piled over one shoulder and her mascara covered eyes looking anywhere but at him. Jon wanted to keep her full face out of the photos as much as possible for the first round. Rather, he wanted to focus on the setting of the shoot and the stunning outfit Margaery had chosen. After taking around a hundred shots of Sansa by the window, he stopped to ask, “how are you doing so far, honey?”

Sansa looked up at him for the first time since he began photographing her, causing Jon’s breath to hitch when her gorgeous blue eyes met his, “I’m okay, how do the photos look so far?” He couldn’t help but think how adorable she looked standing with her hands clasped in front of her, trying to cover her lower half, even though he had been photographing her for the past twenty minutes.

“You photograph beautifully. Truly, these are already stunning and I haven’t even edited them.”

“Your tits look great, babe,” Margaery complimented, loving seeing the two of them squirm.

Jon noticed Sansa’s face flush and swiftly he had to pretend to look through his images lest he think about the fact that Sansa was standing in front of him in lingerie…with her face flushed…and yes, how great her tits looked.

“I’d like to do some with you completely in front of the window, most of your figure will be backlit so don’t worry about your facial expression, it won’t be visible.”

“How shall I stand?” She asked, still not feeling very confident in herself.

“Let’s have you face the window,” Jon responded, while rapidly changing lenses. He snapped a few shots and tilted his camera over to show Margaery, who gasped at how beautiful her best friend looked in the photo.

“Sans, I think this one might be my favorite,” Margaery called over, causing Sansa to turn around and face her best friend.

“We aren’t even halfway done yet,” she giggled. Jon speedily snapped pictures while the red-head was laughing.

“I think I’ve gotten a couple hundred of you with the window, do you think we could move over to the bed now?” Jon almost smacked his forehead, realizing how that sentence came out.

“I-I meant, maybe we could change outfits and settings.” He wasn’t sure that sounded much better.

Margaery jumped in after staring at the two idiots in front of her long enough-the air was so thick in here she was surprised any of them could still breath, “come on love, let’s get you changed.”

The pair walked back into the changing room where Sansa dramatically threw herself down on the sofa, “this is a lot more work than I thought it would be, no wonder models are so skinny, they have to stand still for so long it becomes a damn workout!”

“Well, you’re doing great, the camera loves you…or maybe it’s just the man behind the camera,” her friend trails off.

Sansa snaps her head up, “good god, Jon does not love me!”

Margaery bit her lip, closed her eyes and rapidly nodded towards Sansa, “of course not, any man’s pants would get as tight as his seeing a sexy woman in lingerie giving him fuck me eyes.”

“Margaery!” Sansa cried while covering her face with her hands, “that did not happen and I am not sexy.”

Margaery huffed and pulled out her phone, “take a look at these and tell me you aren’t the most fuckable woman Jon Snow has ever laid eyes on.”

“You took pictures on your phone!” Sansa exclaimed, grabbing it from her friend’s hand.

“Of course I did. I have to document my best friend looking like a total babe,” Margaery disputed like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Fine, just please don’t send them to anyone,” Sansa sighed, defeated.

“No, no one…just your sister. Her and I have a little bet going.”

Sansa slouched back down, dropping the phone at her side, “do I even want to know?”

Margaery raised her brow, “Probably not, let’s just say I think this next outfit will surely have me winning it.”

Sansa stared in horror at the red lace bra and panties Marg was currently holding up, “that’s not lingerie, that’s just underwear!”

“I’m pretty sure lingerie is just underwear, darling. Besides, Jon said this next part of the shoot will be on the bed, what better place to wear this?”

Sansa put the red lace panties and bra on and noticed her chest and face were the same color red as the lingerie when she looked in the mirror. Margaery stared at her, biting her lip in thought with her arms crossed in front of her.

“Hold on a minute, I have just the thing.” With that, her friend left the room with Sansa standing awkwardly half naked in it. She returned a moment later holding a large, white button-down shirt.

Sansa’s eyes widened, “isn’t that Jon’s shirt?”

Marg looked over at her innocently, “yes, it is-figured you might feel a bit more comfortable if you were somewhat covered up.”

She put the shirt on Sansa, who was immediately overwhelmed with the scent of Jon-somewhat musky with a hint of pine. Margaery buttoned the middle buttons and left the rest undone, so the bra and underwear were still visible. She then set to work on unpinning Sansa’s hair, leaving it mussed and down around her shoulders. Lastly, Marg wiped off the nude lipstick Sansa had been wearing and replaced it with a vibrant red.

Sansa was immediately aware of the contrast between her last look and this one. The last one had been classy and beautifully artistic, this one-this one looked like she was practically begging Jon to fuck her. What scared her most was that she wasn’t upset by that thought.

“Gorgeous. Let’s go show your beau.” Margaery led Sansa out of the room after receiving a lame attempt at an eyeroll.

Jon had been waiting around for a few minutes after setting up the lighting around the large bed against the middle wall of the studio. He felt his nerves increase the longer he waited and knew if he didn’t do something with his hands, they would shake too much once he held the camera. Jon grabbed a bottle of water from his bag and took a large gulp. Of course, Sansa had chosen to exit the changing room at that exact moment, wearing red lace panties and push up bra held together by a red ribbon, barely covered by his dress shirt he had worn over the white t-shirt he was currently left in. He tried his hardest to swallow the water but ended up choking and sputtering it out instead. Jon caught a glimpse of Margaery holding in a laugh as Sansa rushed over to him to ensure he wasn’t dying.

“I’m fine, just went down the wrong way,” he managed to squeak out while Sansa stood next to him with sex-mussed hair and red lipstick to match the lingerie.

“I don’t know if there is a wrong way to go down, Jon,” Margaery teased with a wink, causing Jon’s face to heat up.

Once he finally pulled himself together, Jon instructed Sansa to sit on the bed. He tweaked the lighting and picked up his camera, “alright Sans, for these first shots can you sit with one knee propped up and look towards me?”

Jon snapped a few pictures and directed her to lie down, propped up against the fluffy pillows behind her. He took a couple photos from the side and decided he wanted to try a different angle. Jon moved to the very end of the bed and looked up at the redhead, “may I?” He asked gesturing towards the bed. Sansa sat up on her elbows and shyly nodded her head.

Carefully, he climbed up onto the bed and sat so he was facing her, “okay, can you look down towards the shirt and make like your unbuttoning it?”

Sansa bit her lip and looked toward Margaery, who was silently smirking at her with knowing eyes. She did as Jon asked and heard the shutter of the lens. As soon as Jon had come to sit on the bed with her, her heart began to race and was now beating out of her chest.

“Great, now pull one side of the shirt up your leg, slowly,” he said pulling her from her thoughts while trying to will away his own of pulling that shirt up her leg himself and placing kiss after kiss on her long, creamy legs.

Jon cleared his throat, then took a chance and moved so he was sitting next to Sansa on the bed. As he messed with a few settings on the camera he softly asked, “do you feel comfortable unbuttoning the shirt?”

Sansa felt the blush rise up her chest again and without allowing herself to think long, began undoing the middle buttons, leaving the shirt completely open. She noticed he risked a quick glance at her and instructed her to lounge with her hands above her head. She could feel the warmth of Jon’s body next to her and shivered as he reached out and pulled some of her hair to cover her breast.

“Look off to the side, for me,” he instructed with a husky tone to his voice.

Jon snapped a few photos and stood up on the bed to shoot Sansa from above. He must have caught her by surprise, for she looked up at him with a suppressed giggle. Jon hoped she was beginning to feel a little less self-conscious and believed that might be the case when she pulled one side of the shirt off her shoulder and turned on her side so Jon could snap a perfect shot of the glorious way her body naturally curved.

Sansa heard an exaggerated sigh from Margaery and looked over her shoulder at her friend.

“Sans, I’m so sorry. Loras just text me and said there’s an emergency at the store, he needs me to come back.”

She was immediately suspicious of her friend and knew that if there was a true emergency at the boutique, Loras would be calling her obsessively, not texting her.

“You’re leaving?” Sansa asked as she sat up and hugged her legs to her chest.

“I really am sorry dear, you know how incapable Loras is with any crisis.” Sansa could read Margaery like a book and knew exactly what she was doing-and her friend definitely wasn’t sorry at all.

“We could always postpone the rest of the shoot for another time,” Jon offered.

Margaery gathered her bags, “nonsense, you two finish up here and I’m sure Sans will tell me all about how the rest of the session went,” winking at her friend, she hurried out the door of the studio before Sansa could ask too many more questions.

Jon looked over at her, “we can stop if you want.”

Sansa couldn’t believe how much consideration this man was giving her. His only goal was to make her feel comfortable and safe…which she did.

“That’s okay, I want to keep going. Honestly, I’m having fun,” she shyly smiled at him and laid back down on the bed.

“How do you want me?” She asked with a large grin and knowing look in her eye.

Jon took a deep breath to calm his heartrate and kneeled on the bed next to her, “if you feel okay doing so, go ahead and lower the shirt off both shoulders so it’s around your waist.”

Sansa hesitated but reminded herself that Jon wouldn’t do anything to hurt her and lowered the shirt until there was no hiding from him anymore.

He immediately noticed her reluctance, “you’re absolutely stunning, Sansa.”

Jon shot her reaction to his words which led to a photo of Sansa in her bra and underwear, eyes half lidded, and biting her lip. She was far sexier than she had any business being without even trying.

“Do you mind flipping over onto your stomach?”

He snapped a few of Sansa looking absolutely adorable resting on her elbows with her legs kicking about, accentuating the sensual curve of her rear. Jon heavily swallowed when he moved back to the end of the bed and followed the curve of her legs all the up until he had to pull himself out of the trance. Sansa looked over her shoulder and shot him a flirty smirk, arching her back slightly. Jon chuckled to himself, having to pretend his pants weren’t getting tighter, and adjusted the camera settings once more as distraction. When he looked back up into his viewfinder, he expected to see Sansa still lying on her stomach, but was startled to see her having turned back around and pulling on the ribbon that held the bra together in the front.

“Uh, Sansa, what are you doing?” He asked hoarsely, finding his voice was suddenly not working very well.

“Thought I would try one last pose before changing into the final outfit,” she fluttered her eyelashes innocently, even though she felt anything but. Sansa couldn’t refute the strong pull of attraction she felt towards Jon, even though it terrified her to no end.

Jon stood above her once more and took the last few photos of her looking absolutely ravishing while making like she was untying the red silk.

“I think you’ve ruined all other models for me Sansa Stark,” Jon uttered.

Sansa blushed and shook her head, “that can’t possibly be true. I’m not near as attractive as they are,” she sighed with a frown.

Jon stopped fussing with his camera and caught her eye, “Sansa…you are beautiful. I wouldn’t lie about that.” She could tell that there was more he wanted to say but was holding back.

“Thank you, Jon,” she responded sheepishly.

“Do you want to move on to the last series?”

Sansa nodded and hopped off the bed, “sure, just let me go change into Marg’s last piece,” she abruptly turned towards him, “oh, here’s your shirt back.”

Jon took the button-down from her and groaned at the sight of her hips swaying on full display as she walked away from him. He was definitely a dead man.

Sansa briefly touched up her makeup and once she saw the color of the last piece of lingerie, wiped off the red lipstick in favor of the nude she had on earlier. After running a brush through her hair, she stripped off the bra and underwear to put on the purple lace bodysuit. She looked herself in the mirror and couldn’t help but think this was her favorite of the three pieces Margery had chosen. Although, she was quite glad she had prepared herself last night because the lingerie was fully lace and left very little to the imagination. She could understand why Marg had put her in the two-piece set before this one. After practically being in front of Jon in her underwear, this wasn’t as big of a deal. She almost couldn’t wait to show him.

She took one last look in the mirror and walked out of the room for the last time to find Jon filling up the clawfoot tub with some sort of milky liquid.

“What are you doing?”

Without looking over to her, he provided, “I thought we could do milk bath shots for the last series.”

Hearing dead silence, Jon laughed, “trust me, it’ll look stunning.”

She replied with a soft, “I trust you.”

Jon finally looked up at her and felt his heart in his throat at the woman standing in front of him in fairly see through lace lingerie.

She twirled a piece of hair in both hands, “you like?”

“I really don’t mean to make you uncomfortable but…yeah,” he shyly offered.

Sansa put the man at ease by rubbing his arm, “shall I get in?”

Jon held a hand out for her, “go ahead, hopefully it’s not too cold.”

She sunk into the tub, feeling the silky smooth milk settle around her body just under her bust. Jon began to sprinkle some purple and dark pink flower petals in the tub that surprisingly matched her lingerie.

“Alright honey, I was thinking for most of these shots I’ll shoot over your shoulder or head on.”

“Sounds good.”

Jon got to work and shot the first few above her head, creating the exact effect he had in mind, “take a look.”

Normally, Jon didn’t show his subjects photos from the shoot before he edited them since it tended to lead to insecure models asking him to move mountains in editing but he wanted Sansa to trust his vision.

She looked over at the camera screen, pleasantly surprised at the romantic picture of the white tub on the dark wood and pops of color coming out of the bath from the flowers and her purple lingerie.

“Wow,” she sighed.

Jon shyly smiled at her as he moved to the end of the tub and crouched down so he was at eye level with the lovely girl. He got her to laugh by making a funny face that was so unlike himself, which made for what he thought might be his favorite shot of the day.

He carefully placed his camera down and walked back over to the tub with a towel from his gear bag and held it out for Sansa. She cautiously arose from the bath and Jon found he had to look at his feet instead of Sansa-dripping wet with milky droplets running down her figure.

“Thank you.”

She wrapped the towel around herself and sat on the velvet lounge chair next to the tub, watching as Jon sat on the floor in front of her, putting away lenses.

“I had a lot of fun today Jon, thank you for trusting me to be your model. I really hope the company ends up liking the pictures and hires you,” she thought as she began using the towel to wipe down her body, silently hoping Loras wouldn’t be too mad at her having submerged the very expensive lingerie in milk.

Jon looked up at her, “I should be the one thanking you, doing something like this takes a lot of courage. I’ll make sure to send you the gallery once I edit the photos-” 

He paused, eyes catching the deep red scars cascading Sansa’s thighs.

“Honey-what?” He stuttered and without thinking put a hand on Sansa’s knee to get a better look.

Sansa instantly saw what he was gawking at and shrieked-the milk bath must have washed away the makeup Margaery put on her thighs.

“Jon! It’s-it’s nothing,” she hurried to cover herself with the towel, while feeling her heart break at Jon’s pitying gaze.

“Did Joffrey do that to you?” He asked trying to keep himself from yelling as he sensed his blood boiling, “those look fairly new.”

Sansa felt overwhelming embarrassment overtake her and broke down into breathless sobs. Jon jumped to his feet and moved to sit next to her on the chair. Without hesitating, he wrapped his arms around her and felt relief when Sansa clung to his form. He murmured calming words in her ear and rocked her until he noticed her breathing even out.

She couldn’t bear to look Jon in the eye and instead chose to keep her head buried in his chest, “it happened last year…a couple weeks later I ended things.”

Jon still felt her tears soaking his shirt and held her a little tighter. “I thought you broke up with Joffrey in high school. I had no idea you were with him for so long,” he uttered, felling his heart break.

Sansa finally lifted her head away from Jon, his hands coming up to her cheeks to wipe her tears, “what gave you that impression?”

Jon couldn’t help but give her an incredulous look, “only that you told me you were breaking up with him back when we were in high school.”

She peered at him as though he had grown a second head. In that moment, Jon realized that Sansa didn’t retain the one memory that he had held onto deeply throughout the years. The one he would come back to whenever he thought of her.

Sansa felt his arms drop away from her and missed his warmth instantaneously. He ran a hand threw his hair and rested his arms on his knees.

“I guess it’s good you don’t remember the first time Joffrey hit you.”

Sansa was at a loss, “what are you talking about?”

Jon began, “you must have been about 16-I was home from my first year away at college visiting Robb and Arya. Your parents let me stay at your house during break since mom and Lyanna lived so far away. I came back early from the bar one night, too tired from the jetlag to stay out. I found you sitting on the bottom step of your front porch nursing a black eye, crying your poor heart out. I must have sat with you for 2 hours-not once did the tears stop running down your face. I went in to get you a bag of ice for your eye and when I came back out, you told me you were going to break up with Joffrey the next day…I guess you never did.”

Sansa felt as though her mouth could no longer form words. She did remember that night over the years but could not for the life of her ever remember who it was that was with her that night. She had just decided it must have been Robb one night while she was trying to erase those memories from her brain and never rethought it. Hitting her all at once, Sansa was flooded of memories of the smell of pine-a soft black sweater against her cheek-a kiss on the forehead. She realized that the man who gave her comfort and hope that night, the one who showed her she was worth more than how she was treated, was the same man sitting next to her, comforting her now.

“I tried breaking up with Joffrey that next day, but I remember how angry he got and I told him I was only joking. I was so weak against him…he even convinced me to follow him to college. I endured him for 6 years because I was too much of a coward to end things and now have these ugly scars that will be a reminder of him for the rest of my life. You must think I’m so pathetic,” she felt the tears return and once again, fell into Jon’s strong, unwavering arms.

“Hey-hey, don’t say that about yourself. You were in an abusive and controlling relationship with someone who took advantage of you. No one in their right mind would call you pathetic for staying with him. I’m only sorry I wasn’t able to be there for you,” he continued once he felt her calm down again, “and I think your scars are beautiful. They show you’re a fighter and that you made it out alive. I couldn’t be prouder of you.”

Sansa felt her breath hitch at Jon’s words and even more so as he moved to sit on the ground in front of her with his hands on her hips, “you really think they’re beautiful?”

A sly grin came across Jon’s face and felt Sansa tremble as he kissed her knee, “they’re a part of you so yes, I would say they are quite stunning.”

She felt her face flush and body tingle as Jon moved his kisses from one knee to the other. She could feel her pulse in her ears as she watched Jon place open mouthed kisses up her leg, “is this okay?”

She found she didn’t hear him the first time, he said it so quietly. He rested his head halfway up her left thigh and stared at her with dark brown eyes.

She found herself running a hand through his soft curls and asked, “what are you thinking about Jon Snow?”

He smirked, “I’m wondering if you’ll let me show you just how beautiful I think your scars are?”

Sansa couldn’t hold her feelings back any longer and grabbed Jon’s face, leaned down to him, and met his lips with hers. It started off somewhat timid, both seeking approval to continue from the other. Once she pulled away and nodded, their kisses became more passionate. She let out a groan as Jon moved to kiss down her cheek and neck, feeling his tongue on the tops of her breasts being pressed forward by the lingerie. She pulled him back up to meet his lips once more, before drawing away and leaning their foreheads against one another.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to kiss you,” Jon said, voice noticeably hoarse.

“What, since I posed for you in sexy lingerie?” Sansa teased.

Jon laughed heartily, “no, but that definitely didn’t help.” She squealed as Jon swept her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed.

“Jon!” She admonished until she saw him once again, kneeling on the floor while her lower half hung off the edge of the bed. Jon once again, started kissing up each leg, stopping just before reaching her scars. Sansa was in complete bliss, only pulled from it when he placed a delicate kiss on the largest scar located on her upper thigh. Normally, any touch there led to uncomfortable sensations, but instead, his kisses lit a fire in her belly.

He looked up at her questioningly.

“I’ve-I’ve never…had someone kiss me there before. I always thought guys didn’t like it much,” she felt her neck and face turn red, remembering being shot down the one time she asked Joffrey if he was interested.

“We can stop if you like, but I assure you, I am not one of those guys,” he offered, not wanting to push her too fast.

“No, I-it feels good so far…” she found she couldn’t meet his eyeline, flooded with embarrassment.

“How about you tell me to stop if it gets to be too much?”

She nodded her head and watched as Jon went back to work kissing each scar with revelry. Soon, Sansa allowed herself to lie back on the bed and get lost in the sensations Jon was giving her. At some point, it felt like she needed more and lifted her head to look down at him.

Jon’s body shivered at the sight before him. Sansa was looking at him with want and a hint of impatience. He took her left hand in his right and asked once more, “are you sure you want to do this because I can stop.”

He felt the heel of her foot at his back, “if you stop now, I will never forgive you.” Grinning, he pulled the lingerie aside, exposing her to him for the first time, and willed himself to not come in his pants like a teenager.

They both let out a deep moan when Jon’s mouth pressed into her. His lips pressed delicate kisses to her center at first. Upon hearing Sansa’s breath hitch, he licked a long strip from bottom to top with his tongue. Jon explored lapping at her folds, encouraged by her panting. Her left hand was still interlocked with Jon’s so she allowed her right to grip onto his curls. He started out slow, letting the tension build within her like a coil.

“Oh Jon,” she sighed breathily. Nothing with Joffrey had ever felt this good.

She felt Jon’s growl reverberate through her body, causing a tingling sensation to rise from her toes.

“You’re so good for me, love,” his ministrations began to increase in pressure. She could feel her wetness growing and thighs begin to shake. Sansa exhaled as Jon’s tongue dove from her center to the place that sent chills down her spine. She wrapped her legs around Jon’s back as leverage and felt her breathing quicken, “Jon-I think-I think I’m gonna-”

She noticed the grip on her hand tighten as Jon lifted his head slightly, “come for me sweetheart.” Sansa’s moans filled the room once more as Jon centered his focus on her clit until she fell apart beneath him with a shutter and loud groan she would later feel somewhat embarrassed about, but could not care less, now.

The sound of their steady breathing was amplified by the otherwise quiet of the room. Occasionally, Jon would press lazy kisses to her thighs as she came down from her high. He slowly moved up to lie next to her on the bed. She turned to her side and allowed Jon to bring her into his arms, sighing as she rested against his chest. It didn’t take long for her to notice his hard length against her leg, “want some help with that?”

Jon chuckled, “that’s alright, I just want today to be about you. I already feel bad I didn’t take you on a date first.”

Sansa took her finger and dragged it down his nose, “I’m not, you made me feel better than anyone else has and I’m not only talking about what we just did. I only wish I had seen you sooner…what an idiot.”

They both laughed and Jon couldn’t help press a kiss to her forehead.

“Do you think many people have done that on this bed?” Sansa wondered.

“Well, the owner of the studio did tell me to dump the bedding in the laundry shoot down the hall before we leave...so I would say that’s a yes.”

Sansa placed a hand over her eyes, “oh gods.”

Jon sighed, “I wish I could take you back to my place and continue this but that might scar my sister forever.”

“Maybe we could schedule that date then?” She asked, slightly uncertain.

Jon placed a delicate kiss on her lips, “sounds like a plan, do you need me to take you home?”

Sansa sat up, “I would appreciate it, since Margaery high tailed it out of here with my car. Little minx.”

“I’ll have to thank her,” he added with a kiss on her exposed shoulder, “you might want to change, lest you arouse the entire neighborhood.”

Sansa smacked his chest, “oh hush, if anything it will be your handsome face that causes an uproar.”

Jon looked at her smugly, “you think I’m handsome?”

“The most handsome…especially when you’re wearing those glasses of yours,” she admitted with a blush.

“Oh really? You have a thing for me in glasses?” He teased.

Sansa rolled her eyes and hopped off the bed to change back into her street clothes, “I may have had one or two late night fantasies involving you as a professor and something about bending me over a desk,” she offered, leaving Jon slack jawed and groaning while dramatically flinging himself back onto the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...that happened


	7. Burden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this story, it means a lot to me.

Arya settled herself onto the couch in Jon and Lyanna’s living room with a beer and her phone. Lyanna was changing into her pajamas after spending the day with her aunt. Jon had asked Arya if she could “babysit” Lyanna while he went to the shoot. Arya agreed, after teasing him that, as Jon was well aware, Lya was now officially a young woman and did not need a “babysitter” but that she would gladly hang out with Lyanna and keep her company while Jon was gone. Arya had taken Lyanna to the mall to pick out a new video game Theon had told her about and then stopped for dinner before Lyanna mentioned her cramps were starting to return and headed home to curl up on the couch, under a blanket.

She looked at the time to see it was around 7 and Jon still hadn’t gotten back yet. Arya smirked knowingly, and pulled out her phone to text Margaery. Opening her texts, she realized Marg had sent her a picture a couple of hours earlier she must have missed. Arya gasped when she saw its contents.

“What’s wrong?” Lyanna questioned as she strolled out of her bedroom wearing nothing but Jon’s old t-shirt from college and threw herself onto Arya’s lap just as she had opened the photo. Ghost huffed at the added person now taking up more space on the couch and jumped onto the floor to sprawl out in front of the television.

“Woah, is that Sansa?” Lyanna grabbed Arya’s phone, trying to get a closer look.

Arya snatched the phone back, “I’m not sure you should be looking at that.”

The picture was of Sansa in green satin lingerie looking out a large window. The whole thing was quite romantic. Lyanna leaned her back against the arm of the couch, mostly curled in her aunt’s lap, “I didn’t know Jon was taking pictures of Sansa…she looks really pretty,” Lyanna thought.

Arya mumbled, “oh he’s probably doing more than taking pictures.”

Lyanna stared at the screen with a slightly disgusted look on her face, causing Arya to giggle and place a kiss on Lya’s head.

“Do you think I’ll ever be that pretty?” Lyanna asked, quietly.

Arya put her phone down and wrapped her arms around the girl, “you’re gorgeous, sweetling,” she replied, looking Lyanna square in the face, “don’t let my freakishly attractive sister make you feel bad about yourself. I’m pretty sure Robb, Bran, Rickon, and I all got hit with the ugly stick on Sansa’s behalf so she could look like a literal angel.”

Wide eyed, Lyanna burst out laughing until Arya joined in, having to clutch her stomach from not enough air intake.

Arya finally caught her breath and looked back down towards her pseudo-niece, “did someone say you weren’t pretty?” She knew Lyanna had been struggling to make friends at school and was aware that Andrew had not been making as much time for Lya as he had promised when her and Jon were set to move North.

Lyanna shrugged her shoulders and subtly snuggled into Arya’s side a bit more. Of course, Arya noticed, “you need Gendry and I to go beat up some middle schoolers for you, ‘cause you know we totally will.”

Lya responded with a weak laugh, eyes concentrating on a picture her brother hung up on their wall the other day; a trip to an amusement park they all took a couple years prior, the last vacation they wound up going on with their mother.

“Andrew has a “cute” girlfriend now so we don’t talk much anymore and I haven’t really met anyone at school yet,” she lamented.

Arya’s face scrunched, “Andrew’s 14, why the hell does he have a girlfriend?”

The teen once again shrugged with a sigh. Arya began rubbing soft circles on her back, “you said you haven’t gotten a chance to make new friends yet?”

Lyanna silently shook her head, causing Arya’s heart to slightly break, “have you joined any clubs or after school activities?”

“No.”

“Well, maybe you should, it can be a great way to meet people, is there anything you’re interested in?”

Lyanna took a second to think, before offering, “there is a writing club that meets on Tuesdays after school, I guess I could try that.”

Arya smiled and leaned over so her cheek rested on the girl’s head, “you should come visit Nana Cat and Papa Ned more, Bran and Rickon are always playing video games, I’m sure they would be happy to have another person to play with.”

Lyanna hesitated, “I don’t like being a burden on Jon by asking him to drive me everywhere. It’s bad enough our apartment complex isn’t on the bus route and he has to drop me off and pick me up from school every day.”

“You are not a burden on Jon, it’s his job to take care of you and I know for a fact he’s happy to do it.” Arya had never guessed that she felt this way. No 13-year-old should ever feel like a burden on anyone.

“He didn’t ask to raise me-it fell on him to do so. I’m keeping him from being able to find a job he likes or meet someone he might want to marry and have kids with because for the next 5 years, he’s obligated to take care of me.” Lyanna was somewhat startled to feel tears beginning to run down her face.

Horrified didn’t even begin to express how Arya felt listening to her niece. The sweet young girl sitting next to her was often so wise beyond her years, but couldn’t have been expressing a more misguided perception of her brother.

“Lovey, you need to talk to Jon about all this-tell him how you’ve been feeling. I’m not him but I can tell you right now you have it all wrong. You have always been a bright light in his life, even when your mum was still alive. He loves you so much and would do anything for you. He’ll be able to get a job he loves and trust me when I say, you don’t need to worry about his love life. Jon is a complete moron when it comes to it but I have a feeling he’ll be figuring it out fairly soon,” Arya comforted.

Lyanna wiped her eyes of tears and felt a true smile spread across her face as Arya pressed a kiss to her cheek. She would forever be grateful that Jon had uprooted his entire life to move them closer to the Starks. She truly didn’t know if she would have gotten through the past year and a half without them. Arya continued to rub Lyanna’s back and hold her close until they heard Jon unlock the front door a few minutes later. Ghost immediately perked up and ran over to be reunited, acting as though he hadn’t seen Jon in years.

“How are my girls?” Jon called over, setting his gear bags on the kitchen table, which was still covered in Lyanna’s school work.

“Lyanna, did you get this project done?” He asked after noticing everything was in the same place it was when he left this morning.

His sister sheepishly looked over to her brother, “no.”

“Isn’t it due tomorrow?” Lyanna nodded her head and could tell Jon was disappointed.

“Well, looks like your spending the rest of the night in your room working on it. I need the table to start editing,” he huffed.

Lyanna looked at Arya, who gave her a sympathetic smile, and got up to gather her papers from the table. With her arms full and without looking at her brother, she walked silently to her room and shut the door. Arya wasn’t so sure that heartfelt conversation she encouraged Lyanna to have with Jon was going to happen anymore, at least not tonight.

She stood up, “was that really necessary?”

“Lyanna doing her homework? Yeah, I would say that’s pretty necessary,” Jon responded, unpacking his bags.

Arya crossed her arms, “I meant your tone-geez what is with you? Did the shoot not go well or something?”

She noticed the blush that began to creep on her best friend’s face, “or maybe it went too well?”

Jon finally looked up at her and smiled, “it was fine.”

“Fine?! My sister was posing for you in her panties all day, you have to give me more than it was fine!” Arya retorted.

Jon sighed, placing his hands to rest on the table, “would you like to see some of the photos?”

“There’s none of her naked right? I don’t know that I want to see pornographic pictures of my sister,” Arya added, pulling out one of the kitchen chairs as Jon set up his laptop to download the pictures from his camera.

“No, none of them are of her naked.” Jon hoped his tone of voice didn’t reveal how disappointed he was about that fact.

Sansa had hoped there was some truth to Margaery’s tale about an emergency at the shop and that she wouldn’t be home when Jon dropped her off at the apartment. She wasn’t so lucky. It was almost as though Margaery had been standing in the same spot waiting for Sansa to come home since she left the studio.

“Well, hello babe. Enjoy the rest of the shoot?” Margaery sat on the kitchen counter eating a bowl of grapes, swinging her feet back and forth, staring at her with a raised brow.

“It was good. Everything okay at the store?” Sansa asked, still playing along with Marg’s little game.

“Oh-it was just a false alarm, you know how Loras is…every shipment that doesn’t come in the day it’s supposed to is an international crisis,” she explained poorly. Sansa just stared at her friend, not sure she was even trying anymore.

She walked into her bedroom, aware Margaery was following her, “here’s the pieces back, thank you again for lending them to me.”

Margaery unzipped the bag, “why don’t you keep one, dealer’s choice. Although my personal favorite is the green bodysuit, perhaps you’re more interested in the red two-piece set?”

She felt her face flush thinking of wearing the purple lace lingerie while Jon pleasured her with his mouth just a couple hours prior, “maybe this one?”

Marg observed her knowingly, “my, my, sweet girl, you’ve gone awfully red,” Sansa flinched when Marg placed a hand to her forehead, “are you feeling unwell or just thinking about some adult activities you participated in with Mr. Snow?”

“Margaery!” Sansa cried, covering up her face with her hands, wondering how she ever thought she could hide what happened from her best friend.

Marg snickered and placed her hands on Sansa’s shoulders, “just tell me this, was he good to you?”

Sansa felt herself grin and shyly glanced at her friend, “more than good…”

The blonde shot her a closed-mouthed crooked smile and raised eyebrow, encouraging her to continue.

“If you must know…he’s quite talented with his mouth,” Sansa offered, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

Margaery gasped and clapped her hands together like a child, “my baby lost her oral virginity!”

Sansa rolled her eyes at her best friend’s screeching and gathered her pajamas to change into after her shower. As she made her way out of her room and down the hall, Margaery trailed behind her asking question after question.

“Did he ask you out? Did he make you come more than once? How’s he built down there-“

Sansa turned on her heel, “Marg!” She took a second to compose herself before saying, “Yes he asked me out, but I want to take this slow regardless of what happened today-I don’t think either of us were really ready to enter a relationship but here we are…and I didn’t get to see him “down there” because he said he just wanted to take care of me today.”

Margaery melted, “ugh, what a gentleman. You finally found yourself a good one Sans, you deserve it.”

Sansa gleamed down at her feet, flooded by warmth. She gave Margaery a kiss on the cheek and went into the bathroom to shower, calling out a final, “love you!”

“Love you too!” Marg responded, shaking her head, gleefully.

Arya and Jon sat at the kitchen table drinking beer while sorting through the hundreds of photos taken at the shoot. Arya had learned long ago to not insert her opinion when Jon was editing-they often disagreed on which photos were worthy of not being deleted. After seeing her best friend gawk long and hard at a photo of Sansa in the red lace bra and panties giving him bedroom eyes, she asked, “so...when are you asking her out?”

“Hopefully soon,” Jon dismissed, concentrating on his screen.

“Then the shoot went better than “fine” I take it.” Arya enjoyed getting a rise out of Jon but also truly did think he and Sansa would be good for each other. They complemented one another.

Her eyes widened when she noticed Jon blush, “like, a lot better than “fine” then!”

“Arya-” Jon moaned, swiping a hand through his hair.

“Look, I don’t want the gory details of what you and Sansa did together…I just want you both to be happy. Even though you and her experienced different traumas, they’re still traumas. It’ll never feel like it’s the right time to be in a relationship but if you both feel a strong pull to the other, then I say go for it.”

Jon leaned his head against his palm, “I just keep feeling like it’s not fair to Lyanna.”

“Don’t put that on her Jon,” she inserted, having just heard from Lyanna her concerns about ruining her brother’s life, “you’re both still trying to figure this out, it’s only been a year. Figuring it out means moving on with your life…and taking a chance with Sansa. I’d say you’ve waited long enough.”

Jon put an arm around his best friend and pulled her in for a kiss on the forehead, “how’d you get to be so smart huh?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Arya stood and put her empty bottle in the recycling bin, then gathered her stuff to leave.

“As much as I’d love to stay and watch you ogle my sister’s tits and ass all night, I’d like to go spend the rest of my Sunday night with my boyfriend.”

Jon stood and walked Arya to the front door, “thanks for hanging out with her today, I’m sure she appreciated the company.”

Arya gave him one last hug goodbye, “go easy on her okay, she’s had a rough few days.”

He nodded, “goodnight, text me when you get home.”

Arya smirked at how alike him and Robb were still to this day, “night.”

Jon swept a hand over his face and readjusted his glasses before sitting back down at the kitchen table to edit some more before heading to bed himself.

A few minutes later, he heard Lyanna’s bedroom door open. He lifted his gaze to see his sister come out of her room carrying her backpack and stack of school work.

“Get everything finished?”

Lyanna nodded and put her folders and binders in her bag so as to not forget them tomorrow when she went to school. She grabbed a glass of water and silently sat next to Jon as he continued to edit. He subtly looked over at her and noticed the slight sadness in her eyes.

“Do you think this one looks better in black and white or color?” He asked, aiming the laptop over so Lyanna could see better.

He couldn’t help but think how adorable she looked with her face scrunched up in thought-their mother used to do the same thing.

“Black and white, the lighting highlights her figure better in black and white.”

He smiled, “I think so too.”

They sat quietly together for a while just enjoying each other’s company. Lyanna always liked watching him work. He could tell she wanted to say something but was giving her the space to talk whenever she felt comfortable instead of pushing her.

“So, where do you think I should take Sansa out on a date?” He enjoyed watching the surprise and excitement spread across his sister’s face at the prospect.

“Um, well…dinner is always good,” she added unsurely, “maybe take her some place fancy?”

Jon pretended to think about it, “hmm, that does sound better than my plan to take her to McDonald’s, I should come to you for all my romance advice.”

Lyanna gave him a slightly horrified look, “please don’t, I already feel uncomfortable knowing you took all these photos of Sansa in her underwear. I don’t know how much more my young eyes can take.”

Jon belly laughed, glad that his sister appeared to be somewhat back to her snarky self.

“Hey Jon?” Lyanna sat swinging her feet, clutching her hands in her lap, causing him to be nervous about what she was going to say.

“Yeah hon?”

“I was wondering if I could join the writing club at school…they meet after school every Tuesday?”

He breathed a sigh of relief, “of course you can, that sounds like fun. If you’re planning on going this week, I’ll pick you up. Just let me know what time.”

Lyanna threw her arms around Jon’s neck and thanked him. He felt bad that she was so worried about asking him and wondered why. However, it was a school night and Lyanna was already up late finishing her project. He made a mental note to talk to her more later.

“Alright kiddo, why don’t you go hop in bed, I’ll come say goodnight in a minute.”

Jon watched as she skipped off to bed, seemingly happier than she was earlier. He himself, felt lighter than he had in weeks as he finished editing a photo of the woman he had been in love with since high school. Only now, he was pretty sure the feeling was mutual rather than a hopeless fantasy his teenage self had made up.

Sansa left her apartment on cloud nine. Margaery had chosen her outfit for the night after she walked into Sansa’s bedroom to find her half dressed and staring aimlessly at her closet. At first, her friend tried to get her to wear a short red dress that Sansa felt was too provocative for the classy restaurant Jon had made reservations at. Eventually, they compromised on a pair of black trousers that hugged Sansa’s figure, as well as a black loose tank top that hung just low enough for a peak at her lace bra underneath. Sansa paired the outfit with a tan overcoat she could cover up with until they got to the restaurant. Marg had done her hair and makeup, once again making Sansa look as sexy as she felt.

It had been a week since their photoshoot and Sansa unfortunately hadn’t gotten to see Jon again after that Sunday. They had been texting constantly but today, there had been radio silence. She figured he just was as nervous as she was and tried not to think too much of it. However, after texting Jon that she was at his apartment and not getting a reply after fifteen minutes, she decided to give him a call. When it went straight to voicemail, Sansa began to spiral. Thoughts of being stood up entered her mind before she took a deep breath and made her way into Jon’s apartment building. She replayed their conversations from the past week over and over, trying to find any clue as to why he hadn’t talked to her today and why he wasn’t picking up his phone, now.

By the time she reached his apartment, her heart was beating out of her chest. After knocking several times, she felt the tears begin to well, until finally, a disgruntled and overwhelmed Jon answered the door. She observed as he looked her up and down and suddenly, it was as if a lightbulb had gone off.

“Oh my god, tonight’s our date,” he gasped with a hand on his forehead.

Sansa searched for words, utterly confused. She had been sure he was as excited for this as she was, but perhaps she was wrong.

“I’m-I’m so sorry love, I think I’m going to need to postpone-”

Just as Sansa was going to interject, telling him it was fine and no she definitely was not desperate enough to want this to happen that she would go back to her apartment and eat a tub of ice cream with Margaery and cry…she heard what sounded like someone getting sick from somewhere in the apartment.

“Oh shit, not again…I’ll be right back.” Jon flew from the front door to another door down the hallway. Sansa didn’t know what to do but felt awkward standing in the doorway. She took a step inside the apartment and shut the front door behind her. As she was taking off her coat and placing her bag down, Jon reappeared from the other room, hair amess-glasses almost falling completely down his nose.

He stopped in front of her and rested for a second, leaning on a kitchen chair, “Lyanna has some sort of stomach bug…she’s been sick all day.”

Suddenly, it all made sense, “oh no, that poor girl can’t catch a break,” she paused, “don’t even worry about our date, we can go out another time.”

Jon once again, gazed upon the beautiful woman in front of him and groaned, “but you look so good tonight…promise me you’ll wear this again,” he whispered, placing his hands upon her waist.

Sansa giggled and bent over to kiss Jon’s cheek, “or how about I wear something even better for you next time?”

Jon shivered and desperately wanted to hold her and kiss her senseless-and would have if it wasn’t for the sound of his little sister running from her bedroom to the bathroom, trying to make it in time to be sick. After immediately hearing Lyanna break down in tears, he wasn’t so sure she had.

Stepping into the bathroom, he was met with a sight that broke his heart-Lyanna curled around the toilet sobbing, covered in her own sick. He wished dearly he could be ill for her and not have her suffer like she had all day.

“It’s alright baby girl, we’ll get you changed, don’t even worry about it.” Jon went to sit behind his sister and pulled her into his lap. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sansa standing at the bathroom door.

“How many times has she thrown up today?”

Jon tried to think, “maybe five or six, it really started about three hours ago after she tried to eat some soup. She hasn’t been able to keep anything down since, including liquids. Can you run to Lyanna’s room really quickly and grab her a change of clothes?”

Sansa nodded and trekked down the hall to the room where she had seen the young girl run out of moments prior. She had to search through a couple drawers but eventually found a clean pair of underwear and comfortable clothes for Lyanna to change into. Sansa went back to the bathroom to find Jon running a cool washcloth over his sister’s face. Lyanna looked absolutely miserable.

“Lya, I’m just gonna get you out of these clothes okay?” Jon began to pull Lyanna’s shirt off but was met with tears of embarrassment from the teen. She was too weak to get changed by herself but apparently was not so far gone as to not feel the humiliation of her brother undressing her.

“Honey, it will be really quick, I promise. I just don’t want you sitting in these clothes,” he tried to contend, but was met with pleas of “no” from his sister.

Sansa interjected, “Jon, I’ll help her. Why don’t you go get her something to drink that will calm her stomach-do you have ginger ale or anything?”

“Sans, you don’t have to, really,” he began, until he looked back down at his sister quietly crying in his arms and the look of compassion in Sansa’s eyes, “actually…alright, if you don’t mind just getting her cleaned up and I’ll get some ginger ale.”

“It’s no problem,” she promised, carefully helping Lyanna to sit up so Jon could get out from under her and switch places with her.

“I ruin everything,” a small voice uttered.

“What hon?” Sansa asked, not sure she heard the girl correctly.

“I ruined your date,” Lyanna cried, tears falling down her cheeks.

Sansa lifted a hand and wiped them away, “hey, don’t say that. Jon and I will go out when you’re not sick.”

Lyanna curled into Sansa’s arms and whimpered, “I don’t feel good.”

Sansa immediately lifted her head, “are you going to throw up again?”

Her question was answered by Lyanna flinging herself up and leaning into the toilet bowl. Sansa held the girl’s hair and rubbed soothing circles on Lyanna’s back until she was done vomiting. Once again, she wept, and Sansa could have sworn she heard a “mommy” in Lya’s cries.

“Come on sweet girl, let’s get you cleaned up and then back in bed.” Sansa worked diligently and didn’t linger long getting Lyanna out of her soiled shirt. Helping the girl change her pants and underwear proved a difficult task due to Lyanna having no strength to lift her lower body. Sansa hushed calming words, insisting it wasn’t a big deal to need help and assured her it was just the two of them when Lyanna had feared her brother was still in the room while she was changing, mind clearly hazy from the fever. Sansa called Jon back in once they were finished, whom was followed closely by Ghost-understandably worried about his sister.

Jon lifted Lyanna into his arms and walked with her carefully to her room, then placed her onto her bed. The cold from her bedsheets caused her to whine and grip onto Jon’s shirt for dear life.

“Please don’t leave me.”

Without hesitating, Jon slipped onto the bed next to her, lying on top of the sheets while pulling every blanket in sight around his sister. Lyanna feverishly reached for Sansa as well, who sat down on the opposite side of the girl. The bed didn’t feel too small until Ghost leapt onto the foot of it and curled himself around Lyanna’s legs.

“Just close your eyes baby, try to get some sleep. I’ll be right here if you feel sick again,” Jon soothed, brushing his sister’s sweat soaked hair off her face.

“Sansa too?” Lyanna asked, voice irritated and hoarse.

Jon peered over to Sansa, apologetically. She returned his gaze with a soft smile, “of course love, I’ll be right here too.”

Sansa wasn’t completely sure Lyanna understood who was there with her and wouldn’t be surprised if she woke up looking for Arya or their own mother, Catelyn. However, the words seemed to comfort Lyanna enough for the beginnings of sleep to take over.

“You don’t have to stay,” Jon whispered.

Sansa shrugged, “I don’t mind staying for a little while, she seems so cozy, I’d hate to disturb her.”

Both Jon and Sansa made themselves a bit more comfortable on opposite sides of the bed, but still facing one another.

“Thank you for helping her get changed.”

“I don’t mind. Between Robb, Arya, Bran, and Rickon, it wasn’t rare that I was helping one sick with the flu while another was puking from a hangover.”

They both tried to hold in their laughter but neither succeeded. Lyanna shifted and mumbled incoherently, snuggling further into her brother’s arms.

“Well, I appreciate it, and I’m sure Lyanna does too.”

The silence and darkness of the room soon lulled them both to sleep. Hours later, when the sun was starting to rise, Jon felt his heart skip at the sight of Sansa still asleep in the bed with them, having not gotten up and left some time throughout the night. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the date :)


	8. Date Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's like, half smut...no apologies

“Lyanna, come on let’s go,” Jon called into the apartment from the front door, where he was currently nervously pacing. The last thing he wanted was to be late picking up Sansa for their date. He still had to drop Lyanna off at Ned and Cat’s before driving across town to pick up Sansa and make their reservations at the hotel restaurant.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, I just had to finish packing my bag,” Lyanna argued as she walked out of her bedroom and put her shoes on.

“How do I look?” Jon asked one more time before they left.

Lyanna stood in front of her brother and eyed him up and down, “you look very debonair, I think not going with a tie was a good choice.”

He gave her a nod and hurried his sister outside. They reached the Stark’s home in about 25 minutes, although Jon would never admit that he drove over the speed limit to shave off 5 minutes of their commute time.

He accompanied Lyanna to the front door and watched as she hugged her pseudo-grandparents, practically forgetting to say goodbye to her brother.

“Hey,” he called after her as she moved to run to the living room where no doubt Bran and Rickon were playing video games, “be good for Nana Cat and Papa Ned, yeah?”

Lyanna trekked back to hug Jon, “I will, have a good time…but not too good of a time,” she teased.

Jon chuckled and released her to the Starks, somewhat surprised at the supportive glances Ned and Catelyn gave him, knowing he was going on a date with their daughter.

“Give her our love, Jon,” Ned offered before giving him a final pat on the back.

He returned the man’s words with a quiet smile and hurried back to his car, taking one last deep breath before driving to Sansa and Margaery’s apartment. If he had told his teenage self that he would be taking Sansa Stark out on a date, he probably would have had a heart attack. He wanted so badly for tonight to go well after waiting 10 years to take out the love of his life. He had even made a room reservation for them at the hotel…depending on how things went.

Jon had always thought Sansa was absolutely stunning and this sentiment was further confirmed at the shoot when she bared her entire self to him, but he still found himself dumbfounded and speechless when Sansa answered her front door completely dolled up for their date.

“Um-hi,” he stuttered, staring at her in the low-cut golden dress with a slit running up the side.

“Hi,” she replied shyly, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips.

He placed his hands on her waist and took her in, “you look absolutely gorgeous, sweetheart.”

Sansa blushed, “you look quite handsome yourself, Mr. Snow.” Jon was suddenly glad Lyanna had convinced him to wear the gray suit jacket over his white dress shirt instead of the black one he usually wore for nice events.

He caught himself groaning until Margaery interrupted, “let’s keep it in our pants for now loves, you’ll have plenty time for dirty talk tonight.”

This time it was Jon’s turn to blush and felt himself hold onto Sansa’s hand out of instinct, “you ready to go?”

She nodded and said her goodbyes to Margaery. They walked together in silence down to his car, where he opened the door for her and helped her in. Once he got in, he took another moment to gaze at her. He felt the need to pinch himself and question how he got so lucky to be taking her on a date. Originally, Sansa told him she was perfectly fine with ordering a pizza and hanging out at one of their apartments but Jon wanted to do something special for her. After her admission to him about the abuse she had suffered for years from Joffrey, he just wanted to take the night to treat her like a queen.

“So, what kind of food does this restaurant serve? You’ve been very secretive about tonight.” Sansa only knew that Jon was taking her somewhere fancy and that she was encouraged to dress up. She couldn’t get over how nervous she was sitting in Jon’s car. She was trying to remind herself that a mere couple weeks ago she was modeling for Jon in skimpy lingerie and the session ended with his head between her legs. The memory caused her stomach to fill with butterflies and a heat to pool in her lower region.

“It’s a steak house, the hotel also had an Italian place but I thought that was too cliché,” Jon chuckled.

“Hotel?”

“Oh-um, the restaurant is located in that new hotel in White Harbor,” Jon explained, suddenly worried he was being too forward with having planned their date with the idea of staying overnight at the hotel in mind.

“Isn’t that expensive?” Sansa asked quietly, not wanting Jon to spend money on her when she knew he was still struggling to support himself and Lyanna.

“Don’t worry about it…I start my new gig Monday.”

Sansa gasped, “you got the job with the online magazine?”

Jon smirked, “no, they offered me the job but another offer came in for something more stable and with better pay.”

“Oh, is it a someplace I’ve heard of?” Sansa had been rooting for Jon to get the job and would have felt somewhat responsible if the pictures he took of her were the reason he wasn’t hired.

“Uh-yeah. I would think so,” he teased while looking over at her briefly, noticing the cute confused look on her face, “Margaery hired me for the boutique.”

Sansa’s mind was utterly muddled and had no idea what Jon was talking about, “Margaery? My Margaery?”

He couldn’t contain his laughter, “yes, your Margaery. She’s hired me for marketing purposes. She wants me to take pictures of models in the boutique’s clothing for advertising and help them out with some of their marketing.”

Sansa was stunned, “what the hell, Marg didn’t mention anything to me.”

“She probably wanted me to be able to tell you myself.”

“Well, congratulations. I actually think you’ll really enjoy working for Margaery, and Loras is an absolute sweetheart. He and his boyfriend are kind of the creative brains behind the store and Margaery runs more of the actual business.”

“I haven’t gotten a chance to meet Loras yet but I probably will come Monday.”

Sansa couldn’t help but stare at the insanely attractive man sitting next to her. He had kept his curly hair down which had caused not so innocent thoughts of running her hands through it as he went down on her…“you look really happy, Jon.”

Returning her smile, he replied, “I am happy.”

Jon pulled up to the hotel and noticed they had a valet up front. He hadn’t grown up with money, what with his mother being a single parent. Needless to say, he felt a little out of his element. He noticed his breathing quicken when he got out of the car and saw the valet was dressed in a suit that must have cost more than a month’s worth of rent. The panic rose until Sansa clutched his hand in hers and gazed knowingly at him. A sense of calm washed over him and happily, he leaned over to kiss her cheek.

The hotel was recently built and quite extravagant. Both Jon and Sansa gawked at the beautiful architecture. Sansa’s breath was taken away when she realized the restaurant was open to the harbor, which was lit up by the sunset, causing vibrant red and burnt orange colors to dance across the sky.

“Oh my gosh Jon, this is amazing.”

Jon’s face lit up, “I’m glad you like it.”

They were seated by the waiter and Jon ordered a bottle of wine for the table.

With a glint in his eye he offered, “you look unbelievable Sans, I love that dress.”

Sansa felt her insides heat up and bit her lip looking over the man in front of her, “thank you, you don’t look half bad yourself…although you didn’t wear your glasses,” she teased recalling the fantasy she had admitted to him while they laid in bed together.

Jon looked as though he just realized he forgot his wallet, “oh shit, I’m sorry, I completely forgot to grab them-”

“Jon! I was joking,” she giggled.

“Oh…well next time then,” he smirked.

“Next time,” she agreed.

The waiter came back around and took their orders-Jon a steak and Sansa the lobster-deciding it was okay to spoil themselves just this once.

“So, how’s Lyanna feeling?”

“Much better, thanks for asking. She was only sick for the weekend so she went back to school on Monday, much to her dismay,” he laughed.

“Aww, good I’m glad she’s better. It sucks being sick.”

Jon nodded, “once again, I really appreciate you helping us. Lyanna is a pretty private person and it takes a long time for her to trust people, so you must have done something right.”

Sansa grinned and thought about how much she had come to care about Lyanna. She had all the best qualities of Jon and reminded her so much of Arya.

“She’s a strong girl, you’re doing a really great job with her, even if it doesn’t always feel like it.”

“She’s a lot like our mum, Lyanna.” Sansa shot Jon a confused look, “oh, our mum’s name was Lyanna, she named my sister after her-quite the feminist.”

“Sounds like I would have liked her,” Sansa chuckled, beaming when Jon’s face lit up.

“She definitely would have loved you,” he added, looking down at the table, feeling a lump beginning to form in his throat.

Sansa reached across the table and grabbed his hand, “I wish I could have met her.”

Jon nodded, “me too.”

She paused, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring down our night.” Sansa sighed, kicking herself for once again bringing up Jon’s trauma.

“No, that’s okay. I feel like it’s my responsibility to talk about my mum, keep her memory alive.”

Jon brought her hand up to his mouth and planted a soft kiss on it, leaving Sansa blushing like a teenager.

“You mentioned previously that you went to college in the South, what did you get your degree in?”

Sansa noticed the anxiety rise in her body when thinking about her time in Kings Landing, “actually I never graduated. After Joffrey and I broke up, I didn’t want to stay there any longer so I dropped out. I just started taking classes again at the community college though, trying to finish my social work degree.” She hoped Jon didn’t think less of her for being a college drop out. Her fears were quickly assuaged when Jon excitedly responded, “good for you! That’s a noble profession, you’ll be great at it. Any idea what you want to do when you finish your degree?”

“I think I want to go into domestic violence work, help people who were in similar situations to mine,” her nerves soothed when he watched her with admiration in his eyes, truly expressing that he was proud of her.

The waiter brought their food over and they enjoyed eating in silence; just being with each other while the sun set. After she finished, Jon invited her to sit next to him and watch the clouds change color and harbor waves crash along the shoreline. She rested her head against Jon’s shoulder and was soothed by his hand running up and down her arm.

“No one’s ever taken me on a date like this,” Sansa uttered gently, causing Jon to lift his head to look down at her.

“You deserve more than what I can give you. I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened at the shoot. I really enjoyed it but feel like I took advantage of you. You made yourself vulnerable to me and I went too far,” Jon’s face fell in turmoil.

Sansa felt her heart break at his sincerity, “Jon, you are the most kind, respectful, and thoughtful man I have ever been with. After Joffrey, I was pretty lost and made some horrible choices. Decisions I’m still processing, but you are one of the only choices in the past year that I don’t regret. If I didn’t want what happened that day to have happened, I would have stopped you,” she felt Jon take a stuttering breath, “I want to be with you because you treat me like a human being, not something that is yours to possess.”

Jon took hold of her chin and brought his lips to hers. They kissed deeply and lovingly, but were suddenly made aware that there were other people around them, “I want to kiss you for hours,” he lamented.

“We could go back to the car for a little privacy,” Sansa offered.

Jon sheepishly looked at her, “I might have…made a room reservation here at the hotel.”

Sansa’s jaw dropped with an open-mouthed smile, “someone had high expectations for this date!”

“I’m sorry, I know it was presumptuous of me and we don’t have to do anything-I would be perfectly happy just sleeping with you tonight-not with you, with you, like next to you-fully clothed-”

“You’re rambling,” Sansa tried to interrupt but Jon nervously continued, “or I could just bring you home, that’s totally fine too, whatever you feel comfortable with. Please tell me I haven’t fucked this up-”

“Jon!” She exclaimed and leaned in, seductively grazing his ear with her lips, “I would love to go upstairs with you,” her words broke off, as she thought for a second, “what about Lyanna?”

“She’s with your parents for the night,” he replied.

“And Ghost?”

“With Theon.”

Sansa grinned and Jon’s face lit up, then he quickly paid for their check. They hurried to the front desk, where they got their room key and made for the elevator.

“8th floor,” he spoke as she pushed the button. They held hands the entire way up, helping to ground Sansa as she started to feel the nerves rise. She wasn’t scared or worried about spending the night with Jon, but her body had been in enough scary situations that it couldn’t tell the difference.

He squeezed her hand once they reached their floor and led her out the elevator, looking for their room. Jon paused as they stopped in front of the door, “I meant it when I said we don’t have to do anything, I just wanted to spend some time with you, alone.”

Sansa smiled shyly and planted her lips to his. She felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer to his body. Placing her hands on his chest, she noticed his muscular form and shivered from head to toe. Jon let out a soft sigh and placed his forehead to hers.

“We go at your pace,” he stated.

She nodded, biting her lip, and swiped the key card to open their door. Stepping into the luscious and calming room, she once again had to catch her breath. The large king-sized bed looked ever so inviting, covered in the softest gray and white linens she had ever seen. Their room had an incredible view of the harbor and clear night sky.

She excused herself to their suite’s bathroom to freshen up and marveled at the marble walk in shower that was open to the rest of the bathroom-only a short marble wall that barely reached her waist, for privacy. It truly evoked the feeling of a romantic getaway.

She looked herself in the mirror and fixed her lipstick, noticing how shaky her hands were as she tried to apply it. Chastising herself, Sansa convinced her mind that she was being stupid and to stop trembling or Jon would notice and not want to be with her. Leaving the bathroom, she saw Jon standing in front of their balcony doors, looking outside. She snuck up behind him and threw her arms around his torso.

“Gods, how did you sneak up on me?”

“You were in your own little world. What were you thinking about?” She asked, pressing her lips to the back of his neck where his suit jacket had exposed a small part of his back.

“I was thinking about how lucky I am,” he answered, turning around in her arms so he could kiss her, properly. It started off somewhat cautious until they both got the courage to allow themselves to indulge in the pleasure the other was offering. Sansa moaned as Jon’s tongue swept across her lower lip and their kisses began to get hungrier. Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted off the floor and pressed into the glass sliding door. She gasped at the cool sensation now at her back mixed with the warmth of Jon’s mouth pressing open mouthed kisses along her neck and the top of her chest. Her hands wound up in his curls, tugging on them, gently. She could feel heat pooling in her center and needed more from him.

“Jon, let’s go to bed,” she whispered and caught his gaze from where he was placing kiss upon kiss on her bust. Gently, he lowered her to the ground and watched as she strolled over to the bed and faced away from him.

“Can you unzip me?” She asked with a seductive glance over her shoulder.

Jon whimpered and quickly moved to take off his suit jacket and throw it over the chair in the corner. He stepped behind Sansa and placed his lips on her shoulder blades, relishing in her soft sighs. He tugged her zipper down and felt his breath catch when he realized she wasn’t wearing a bra. He followed the line of her zipper with his lips and ended up on his knees before her. The zipper ended just above her panty line, where he caught a quick glimpse of black lace underwear. Sansa leisurely lowered the dress until it hit the floor.

She felt Jon’s hands on her hips and nervously spun around in his grasp, allowing him to see her. Her mind raced to times with Joffrey where he had her keep her top on during sex and never really cared to look at her-just to take what he wanted from her. She hoped she was enough for Jon.

His eyes took in her form and felt his arousal heighten. Blood rushed to his face among other areas and rubbed his hands along Sansa’s thighs. His trance-like state was broken when he saw the face of the woman he loved filled with anxiety and embarrassment.

“You’re so fucking sexy, Sans,” he begged her understanding of his feelings for her.

She threw him a timid smile and tried to will away the blush on her cheeks. She knew she didn’t have anything to worry about when it came to Jon, she just needed to remind herself of that fact, every now and again. The flush on her face reddened for entirely different reasons as Jon mouthed at her through her panties, whilst rubbing his thumb along the underside of her breast. She threw her head back, enjoying the sensations he was giving her. He urged her back to the bed, where her knees hit the edge. He could tell her panties were soaking wet and hooked his fingers on either side.

“Can I take these off?” Jon inquired, looking up at her with swollen lips.

She nodded in response and felt the cool air hit her as he pulled the lace underwear down her legs. She fell back on the bed and allowed Jon to rest her legs over his shoulders. He gave one of the scars on her left thigh a soft kiss, “is this okay?”

She sat up on her elbows and looked down at her handsome man, “better than okay, but only if you want to of course-” she responded with a gasp at the feeling of Jon’s tongue running up her slit.

“You have no idea how badly I’ve been wanting you like this since that first time,” he growled, increasing the pressure and ministrations on her clit, loving the moans falling from her sweet mouth. He felt his member harden in his now increasingly tight pants as Sansa threaded her fingers through his curls and gripped them for dear life.

“Jon,” she sighed again and again until she felt her thighs begin to tremble as the tension built.

It was like he knew all the right places to trace with his tongue and soon, she could no longer hold off any longer.

Jon pushed her over the edge and groaned at the feeling of her coming in his mouth. They both stayed motionless as they caught their breath. He drew soothing patterns on her thigh as he rested his head against her knee, loving how beautiful she looked with her red hair strewn across the sheets and chest heaving up and down.

“I think you’re overdressed, Mr. Snow,” Sansa teased, even though she found herself aroused at the sight of him between her legs in just his white dress shirt and gray trousers while she lay before him completely naked.

Jon laughed, “I guess we should fix that.”

She watched through languid eyes as he stood and began unbuttoning his shirt, gradually exposing his toned chest and muscles. As he turned away from her to lay his shirt over his suit jacket on the chair, she let out a sigh at the way his back muscles tensed and released. His trousers were the next thing to go and she couldn’t help but gawk at his toned thighs. His arousal was evident through his briefs, though she found herself grateful he chose to keep his underwear on as he climbed onto the bed next to her so they were face to face. Her nerves returned, thinking about how this was usually when Joffrey took her roughly and paid no mind to the pain he would inflict. Jon noticed her expression change immediately and wrapped an arm around her to pull her to his chest. He groaned at the feeling of her bare breasts pushing against him and began planting kisses all over Sansa’s cheeks, forehead, and nose. She giggled loudly as his ministrations began to tickle.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing,” Sansa apologized as her face fell.

Jon stopped, “of course you should, this is supposed to be fun.” He was heartbroken that she was scolding herself for actually having good sex and made it his mission to have her enjoy this experience.

“I’m having fun,” she whispered before taking his lips in hers, shuddering as he ran his hands along her bare body. Jon pushed her to her back and ran his tongue from the valley between her breasts down to just below her belly button. Finally, after much teasing, he latched onto her left nipple and lazily ran his middle finger up and down her slit. She once again, felt her breath quicken and closed her eyes to focus on just how good this felt. Some part of her felt guilty that Jon was giving her all the pleasure and bravely moved a hand to rub down his chest to the top of his briefs.

Jon cursed as Sansa’s hand dipped below his underwear and wrapped around his hard member, “fuck, sweet girl.”

Sansa smirked and started up a steady rhythm, actually enjoying the feel of him in her hand. Jon’s circling of her clit increased, pushing her closer to the edge, yet again. She felt Jon begin to insert a finger and was taken out of the moment by the sharp pain it caused, reminiscent of all her previous times.

Jon instantly noticed Sansa’s face scrunch in discomfort as he pushed his finger into her entrance and quickly withdrew it, “is it too much?”

Sansa nodded with a wince, “I’m sorry.”

He swiftly pressed a kiss to her forehead and wrapped her in a tight hug, “please don’t apologize, love. We’ll only do what feels good to you.”

She allowed Jon’s warmth to calm her and thought of how safe he made her feel.

“What if you did it yourself?”

Sansa looked up at him with confusion but suddenly caught on when he took her hand in his and dragged it down their bodies.

“Perhaps you won’t tense up if it’s your own hand?” He presented, considerately.

Sansa blushed at the thought of touching herself in front of Jon but noticed the look of deep arousal in his eyes and moaned as he pressed his lips to hers and took her breast in his large hand, rubbing his thumb across her nipple. Her fingers found the spot she well knew caused intense pleasure and focused on Jon’s hand and lips. The sensations were almost overwhelming but just enough to feel amazing and where she still felt completely in control. When she was close, she slowly inserted her finger, as she had done several times before, and felt nothing but pure bliss.

“You’re so beautiful like this, Sans,” Jon’s hoarse voice proclaimed.

The room filled with the sounds of his lips on her skin and her finger working in and out of her. Jon leaned back to glance down at where her hand was feverishly working and she could have sworn he squeaked from arousal. He made quick work of his briefs and she finally got a chance to fully look at him. He was for sure bigger than Joffrey but she swiftly exiled him from her thoughts and vowed to focus on the fact that it was Jon lying next to her, just Jon. The man who would never do anything to hurt her and had treated her like she was his world this entire time. She moved her hand from her center to rest on his bicep and flushed at the wet mark she left on his arm. It only seemed to spur him on as he took his cock in hand and gave it a few pumps.

“Are you on birth control?” He asked, mentally berating himself for getting this far and not asking sooner.

“I’m on the pill.”

“Well there’s a condom in my wallet if you would feel more comfortable with me wearing one.”

She nodded and reluctantly left their warm little bubble to grab his wallet from his pants pocket. She felt Jon stare at her naked form and turned back around to see him hazily watching her through half-lidded eyes. When she strolled back over to stand next to the bed, he reached around her waist and pulled her towards him, kissing her abdomen. He would never grow tired of the giggle that came out of her mouth. She climbed over him to settle back down beside him and watched as he put the condom on and turned on his side to hold her.

“I don’t want to be on my back,” she confessed, quietly.

“That’s alright,” they pressed their foreheads together, both on their sides, shyly gazing at one another, “are you okay like this?”

“More than okay,” she replied, never having realized how much she would like being in a man’s arms.

Jon reached down between them and took hold of his member, “you 100% sure, sweet girl?”

Sansa answered him with a gentle kiss and tugged him closer to her. He took her leg and wrapped it around his hip, angling them. She gasped lightly as he started pushing into her, except this time, she didn’t feel pain.

“Tell me if I go too fast,” he managed, trying not to hurt her.

“It feels good, just pinches a little,” she replied, slightly out of breath.

He eased into her little by little, allowing her to adjust, doing his best to read her facial expressions and giving her a minute when it was too much. They both let out deep sighs when he was fully seated in her. Jon placed one hand on her back and the other on her rear, anchoring them. He got the go ahead to move when he felt Sansa roll her hips, tentatively. He rolled his hips in deep, languid strokes, and reveled in the sounds she made. Sansa arched her head back and Jon took the opportunity to kiss her neck. They continued at a slow, loving pace and matched each other’s gasps and moans. Sansa closed her eyes and tucked her head into the crook of Jon’s neck, digging her fingers into his back.

“You feel so good, honey, so fucking good,” Jon groaned into her hair, still holding her close.

Sansa enjoyed the feeling of him gently entering and withdrawing from her, almost pulling the pleasure out from deep within. They caught each other’s eye and she found herself whispering, “I think I love you.”

Jon’s heart skipped, “I know that I love you, Sansa. I have for a very long time.”

She felt tears spring to her eyes and brought their lips together. His hips snapped to hers, causing obscene noises to fill the room. A newfound passion, urging them forward.

“Harder,” she sighed.

Jon’s thrusts increased as he gripped her backside tighter, feeling the sweat begin to bead on his forehead. He wanted to last for her but she was warm and clenching around him.

“Are you close?” He panted.

“Uh-huh.”

Jon reached a hand between them and circled her clit once more, causing her to breathe heavily.

“Jon,” she moaned, feeling herself right on the edge.

His thrusts began to lose rhythm and with a final few pumps, they both came, quite intensely. Their arms stayed tightly around one another and Jon pressed lazy kisses to her forehead, wiping some of the sweaty strands aside.

“I’ve never come with a guy inside me, before,” she acknowledged, still trying to catch her breath.

Jon laughed, “I’ve never come at the same time as the other person, before.”

Sansa’s face broke into a wide smile, knowing she had been Jon’s first for something.

“I meant it, about being in love with you.”

“I meant it too,” he answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this was okay, it's been a minute since I've written smut so I'm definitely a little rusty. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave any constructive criticism!


	9. New Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive the shortness of this chapter, it's a bit of a transitional chapter, the next one will move the plot along a bit more :)

Jon woke to the sounds of the harbor waves and seagulls gawking in the morning sun. His arm was thrown over Sansa’s soft, bare back. She was facing away from him, hair strewn over her pillow, taking deep, relaxed breaths. After their night together, they had curled up in each other’s arms and placed sleepy kisses on the other until they both feel asleep. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept so soundly throughout the night. He took a moment while his love was still sleeping to admire her beauty. The sunlight streaming in from the sliding glass door danced across her form and created golden streaks in her hair. He ran his finger down the length of her spine and relished in the sigh that came from her.

With bleary eyes, she rustled in the unbelievably comfortable sheets and looked over her shoulder to see Jon gazing at her. She self-consciously covered her eyes with her hand, “I must look awful.”

Jon pulled himself behind her and rested his arm under her bare breasts, thumb stroking her ribs, “hush, you look gorgeous, as always.”

He placed soothing kisses on her neck and shoulder, enjoying the warmth of their bodies pressed together, “how are you feeling?”

Sansa took note of her body and shifted slightly, “a little sore but mostly good,” she smiled.

“Why don’t we take a hot shower and I can massage some of those sore muscles,” he offered, voice still husky from just waking up.

She twisted around in his arms and pressed her lips to his, “hmm-that sounds amazing.”

Reticent to leave the perfect little bubble of their date, they took their time in getting out of bed and heading into the shower. The rainfall heads in the shower streamed hot water down their bodies, as they stood in the center of the luxurious space, holding each other. Sansa rested her head on Jon’s shoulder and sighed as he rubbed her sore back and moaned when his hands dipped lower.

“Already? What, you didn’t get enough last night?” She teased, wanting him again just as much as he clearly wanted her.

“I could never get enough of you,” he whispered seductively in her ear.

Jon gripped her thighs and lifted her into his arms, allowing her legs to wrap around his waist. He took her against the shower wall, more hurried than their tender romp the night before, but Sansa savored in this different kind of passion. It was a quick fuck, but still filled with love for one another. She tried not to think about how soon, they were to go back to their separate apartments and once again, only see each other once or twice a week. She knew it was how it had to be for now, but she had enjoyed the last 24 hours with him so much.

“I wish we could stay here forever,” she bemoaned, as Jon wrapped a towel around her form once she stepped out of the shower.

“Me too, sweet girl,” he replied with a kiss to her forehead.

They got dressed in the clothing they wore the night before and got in Jon’s car to head home after they checked out of their room.

“I can’t believe I’m about to do the walk of shame in front of my sister,” Jon joked.

“Yeah, next time we stay overnight somewhere, warn me so I can pack a change of clothes. Then we could at least eat breakfast before leaving.”

“Hey, I told you we should eat at the restaurant, would have been the best dressed ones there.”

Sansa burst out laughing thinking of her in her gold dress and Jon in his suit, eating eggs and bacon.

Jon pulled up to Sansa’s building, where they sat in silence, not quite ready to leave each other’s company.

“Maybe you could come over one night this week?” Jon asked, raising an eyebrow.

“And scar your sister forever?”

Jon sputtered, “well, we don’t have to have sex. I’m just going to miss sleeping next to you.”

Sansa heart grew at his sweetness. She truly couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

“I’m going to miss sleeping next to you too, as well as our more…adult activities,” she tormented, “especially your mouth.”

Jon concealed the whine building in his throat and leaned over to give her a kiss goodbye, “love you.”

Her smile reached all the way to her eyes, “I love you too. Text me later, okay?”

He nodded and watched as she safely made her way into the building. He leaned his head back and swiped a hand over his face, desperately wanting to follow her up to her apartment and make love to her one more time. Unfortunately, he knew he had to get back to his responsibilities, which included picking up his little sister from her grandparent’s. He began to seriously regret not bringing a change of clothes when he realized Ned and Cat would see him still dressed in his suit from the night before…after spending the night with their daughter. Jon groaned and took off to pick up Lyanna.

He walked up the front door of the Stark home and knocked, forgetting about the pack of dogs that inevitably started barking, alerting everyone that someone was at the front door. Ned answered the door with a smile.

“Hey Jon.”

“How are you sir, hope Lyanna didn’t give you all too much trouble,” he said noticing how Ned eyed him up and down briefly, making his palms sweat.

“Of course not, she’s an angel compared to our other kids.”

“Thank you again for letting her stay the night.”

“It’s no problem, Jon. We love having Lyanna here.”

Ned led Jon into the house, stating Lyanna was still eating breakfast with the boys. Jon had hoped she would be ready to leave as soon as he got there to save himself some embarrassment, but he was never that lucky. He found Lyanna sitting at the island in the kitchen next to Rickon, eating a bowl of cereal. Catelyn was at the sink, cleaning dishes.

“Morning you two, or should I say afternoon,” he teased, glancing at his watch.

Lyanna took one look at him and grumbled, “speak for yourself, looks like I’m not the only one who had a late night.”

Jon felt his ears turn red as Catelyn whipped around to silence the two teens, who were now laughing hysterically.

She turned towards him and smiled, “how is Sansa, dear?”

Just as he was about to answer her, Rickon interrupted, “probably happier than before their date.”

Bran wheeled into the kitchen at hearing the loud teens and instantly noticed Jon’s pale face, “what’s going on?”

“Jon and Sansa totally banged,” Rickon offered.

“Eww, Rickon. That’s our sister.” Jon was thankful Bran was always the sensitive one out of the Stark siblings.

“Alright, enough. Lyanna go get your bag from upstairs, I’m sure Jon wants to go home,” Cat advised, sternly.

Lyanna, Bran, and Rickon left Jon in the kitchen alone with Ned and Cat, silently wishing the floor would swallow him whole.

“I would apologize for their behavior Jon, but I’m sure you’re used to it by now,” Ned sighed as he walked over to take a seat at the island.

“You and Sansa are both adults. While I don’t particularly want to hear about what happened last night, I just want to say I’m glad you and her found your way to each other,” Ned provided, attempting to calm the sweating young man in front of him.

“Really?”

Catelyn stepped towards him, “of course, Jon. We know the type of man you are and after everything Sansa’s been through,” he heard the woman’s voice tighten, “well, let’s just say I know you’ll treat her the way she deserves to be treated.”

Jon froze when Catelyn wrapped her arms around him and placed a motherly kiss on his temple. He would never be able to put into words how appreciative he was of the Starks and all they had done for him and Lyanna. He only hoped he could repay them by loving their daughter the way she deserved and never cause her any type of pain.

“Thank you,” he whispered, fearful he would start crying in front of them.

“We love you, son,” Ned quietly vocalized, most definitely causing the tears to now gather in Jon’s eyes.

He quickly wiped his eyes when he heard Lyanna run down the stairs, having packed up her things to head home.

“Ready to go kiddo?”

His sister nodded and hugged her grandparents goodbye.

Jon excitedly walked towards the boutique Margaery and her brother Loras owned. Sure, he had some first day jitters but he was overwhelmingly eager to start this new job. He was already quite fond of Margaery and Sansa had assured him he would get along well with Loras. He had his gear bag slung over his shoulder, not too sure if he was expected to shoot anything today or if today was just to settle in.

Opening the door to the store, he immediately noticed the beautiful and elegant, yet warm, set up inside. The space was inviting and felt family-owned. It seemed like they sold different types of clothing as well as accessories.

“Oh good, you’re here!” He heard from somewhere deep in the store. Margaery bounded toward him out of no where and threw her arms around him, “you found the store alright?”

“Oh yeah, this is prime real estate, I’m surprised the rent doesn’t cost you a fortune.”

Margaery smirked at him, “oh it did, Loras and I saved for a long time to be able to afford it. Plus, our grandmother gave us a sizeable loan,” she looped her arm through his and led him towards a back room, filled with extra stock, “you must meet Loras.”

A young, blonde, curly haired man stepped out from behind one of the shelves with a smile on his face, “you’re not scaring him away already Marg, are you?”

Margaery giggled, “of course not brother. Anyway, I don’t’ think Jon here scares so easy,” she added with a wink. Jon had to convince his blush to stop, for it was far too early for Margaery to already be causing him to stumble over his words.

“Jon, it’s good to meet you. I’m really excited you’ll be working with us. Marg showed me some of the photos from your shoot with Sansa-they were exquisite.”

Jon reached his hand out to shake Loras’s, already telling they would get along, “thank you, man.”

“So, Loras and I were hoping to show you the collection we are hoping to advertise for the spring and get your thoughts on what to do for a shoot.”

“That sounds great. I’ll just get settled in then.”

The next 5 hours were spent with himself, Margaery, and Loras sitting around a large wooden table in their back offices going over advertising ideas as Jon brainstormed ideas for theming of the photoshoot. He had completely forgotten that he turned his phone off and didn’t see the myriad of texts and phone calls from his sister and Sansa.

Lyanna and Shireen left the classroom writing club was held in talking excitedly about their poems. Each week, the club leader assigned a vague writing prompt for them to write something about by the time the club let out. They had free range in what they did with the topic and in what style. Lyanna and Shireen decided to write poems this week after learning the prompt was about the changing seasons. The two had met the first time Lyanna stayed after school to join the club. Shireen had immediately noticed the girl looking lost and invited her to sit next to her. They began talking and realized how much they had in common. Lyanna felt slightly intimidated every time Shireen talked to her and couldn’t quite figure out why. Perhaps it was the girl’s striking green eyes or soft spoken, kind voice. Shireen was so nice to everyone, even people she didn’t really know. Lyanna began sitting with her at lunch and looked forward to spending time with her after school. She dismissed the butterflies she felt in her stomach when Shireen would touch her arm to get her attention or when she flashed the other girl a sweet smile.

They walked side by side out to the parking lot where a few parents were already pulled up out front, waiting to pick up their kids from after school activities. Shireen didn’t see her grandfather’s truck yet nor did Lyanna see Jon. The two sat down on the front steps, content just being next to each other.

“Your poem is really great,” Lyanna offered, immediately feeling lame at not saying something more descriptive.

However, Shireen’s face lit up, “thank you! I love yours; I don’t know how you write something so beautiful in just an hour.”

Lyanna blushed, “today’s prompt just kind of felt natural to me, I guess.”

“I loved how you personified the season of summer, brilliant choice.”

Lyanna found she had to look away from her friend’s soft gaze, lest something embarrassing slip from her mouth.

Shireen saw her grandfather’s truck arrive in front of the school and looked around, noticing the parking lot was otherwise empty, “do you know when your brother’s coming?”

“He’ll be here soon, he just started a new job so he’s probably just running a little late,” Lyanna assured, hoping her voice didn’t show the rising panic and aggravation. Jon was always a little early to pick her up from school-she couldn’t remember the last time he was late.

“Do you want to wait in our car until he comes?”

Lyanna shook her head, not wanting to inconvenience her new friend, “don’t worry about me, I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

Shireen looked like she was about to argue but shot her a small smile instead, “okay, I guess I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow.”

Lyanna waved goodbye and nervously took out her phone, looking for any texts or missed calls from her brother…nothing. She began to wonder if maybe he had forgotten about her. Lyanna couldn’t really blame him, knowing how excited he was to start his new job today. She scrolled over his name to call him but thought twice about bothering him. Instead, she decided to text Sansa.

_Hey, it’s Lyanna. Have you seen Jon today?_

She immediately saw three dots on the bottom of her screen, feeling slightly comforted that Sansa had seen her text.

_I haven’t…pretty sure he worked today._

_Okay,_ Lyanna replied.

_Why? Is everything okay?_

Lyanna thought about telling Sansa everything was fine and to just wait for Jon but he was already a half an hour late and she started to feel a little nervous sitting outside by herself.

_Yeah, he’s just a little late picking me up from school…but it’s okay, I can wait a little longer._

Her heart raced as she saw the three dots indicating typing, pop up again. She didn’t want to be the reason Sansa got upset with Jon.

_Stay right there. I’m coming to get you._

Lyanna hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on top of them. She felt her body shiver at the cool air enveloping her. Thankfully, she saw Sansa’s car pull up only about ten minutes later. She grabbed her backpack and hurried over. The girl felt immense relief as soon as she sat down and shut the door.

Sansa placed a gentle hand on her cheek, “are you okay?”

Lyanna nodded and took a deep breath, “thanks for picking me up.”

“When was Jon supposed to be here?” Sansa took out her phone to text Jon that she had Lyanna with her and he could come get his sister at her apartment. Frankly, Sansa was pissed at him.

“I had writing club after school, he usually is on time,” Lyanna sighed, somewhat sadly. She felt bad that Sansa had to come get her and disrupt her day. She hated always feeling like a bother.

“I don’t have a key to the apartment,” Lyanna suddenly remembered.

“We’re going back to Margaery and I’s place, there’s no way I’m leaving you alone until we figure out where your brother is,” Sansa pulled out of the parking lot and noticed how upset Lyanna looked. Trying to cheer her up a bit, she asked, “so, are you enjoying the club?”

Lyanna smirked slightly, “yeah, it’s pretty cool…I uh-I made a friend.”

They came to a red light and Sansa peered over at Lyanna, observing the young girl’s face beginning to blush, “oh yeah? What’s their name?”

“Her name’s Shireen…she’s really sweet. Like, the nicest person I’ve ever met, honestly.” Lyanna had a wistful air to her voice, one that made Sansa smile to herself.

“I’m glad you made a friend. I know you were starting to get pretty disheartened.” Sansa rubbed Lyanna’s shoulder comfortingly, before driving once more as the light turned green.

Lyanna rested her chin on the backpack currently tucked in her lap and nervously bounced her leg. She buzzed her lips and felt her heart start to beat rapidly as she tried to muster the courage to ask Sansa a question that had been on her mind since meeting Shireen.

“Hey Sansa?” She asked quietly, silently hoping the older woman hadn’t heard her.

“Yeah, love?”

“Um-how can you tell if you just want to be friends with someone…or more than that?” Lyanna rushed the words out and felt her face burning, refusing to look at Sansa’s expression.

What Lyanna didn’t see was the loving expression that spread across her brother’s girlfriend’s face. She missed the moment Sansa almost pulled the car over and took her into her arms, wanting nothing more than to wrap the girl in warmth and comfort.

“You remember how I told you I met Margaery in college and she has been my best friend ever since?”

Lyanna nodded, still only looking at the road in front of them.

“Well, after I got out of my last relationship, the one I was in before I started dating your brother, I dated Margaery for a while.”

At this point, she was so startled by what Sansa had just said, she couldn’t help but flip her head around to look at her, “really?”

Sansa giggled at Lyanna’s dropped jaw and bright eyes, seeing the relief they held, “yeah, I guess you could say she was kind of a rebound. I just wanted to be with someone I felt safe with and would restore my faith in dating.”

“But you guys are still friends, even after you broke up?”

“Of course. We were more just kind of messing around than seriously dating, to be honest. She knew I needed her in that moment in a different way than just a friend. I don’t know how I ever got so lucky to have met Margaery. We went out for about a month and I began to feel like I was just using her. She always assured me she knew we were never going to be in a long-term romantic relationship, but it didn’t feel right leading her on and keeping her from potentially meeting someone she might want to spend the rest of her life with.”

Lyanna sat in thought, “were you guys ever worried about ruining your friendship?”

Sansa could see the conflict rolling off Lyanna, “not really. Margaery and I always loved each other, even if our love changed throughout the years. We both decided not to let that one month ruin our entire relationship. I think it helped that we just mutually agreed to not continue dating. We didn’t really break up in the traditional sense of the word. Just decided we were better friends than girlfriends.”

Lyanna began nervously twiddling her thumbs, “how did you, well um…how did you know Margaery was…into girls?”

Sansa laughed, remembering all the times in college she would accidently walk into their dorm room to find Margaery with her tongue down some girl’s throat, “I was lucky in that Margaery was a very…open person.”

“Oh,” Lyanna said plainly.

Sansa quickly offered, “but I would assume it’s all in the vibes you give each other. It’s different than the way you talk and act with a friend. There’s nothing wrong with asking though. Communication is key in a relationship, friend or romantic.”

“I don’t want her to hate me,” Lyanna stated, barely audible.

“Lyanna, if you express the way you feel to her and she rejects you as a person, you don’t want someone like that as a friend anyway. Best case, she feels the same way you do. If not, that’s okay and then at least you know. Just tell her you don’t want it to change the friendship you want to have with her.”

Sansa pulled into the parking garage for her apartment complex and put the car in park. Lyanna felt like some sort of weight had been lifted off her shoulders, but couldn’t shake the weird pit in her stomach.

“Hey, can you not tell Jon that we talked about this?”

Sansa paused, “you know your brother will support you know matter what.”

“I know, just-please don’t tell him.”

“I would never, honey.”

They both gave the other a small smile and got out of the car to walk into the apartment building.


	10. Fights and Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it has been so long since the last update. Life became a little rough and it was hard to find the motivation to write, but I haven't given up on this and I appreciate everyone who has waited so patiently. Hopefully, this chapter was worth it.

Jon felt his stomach in his throat as he ran to his car, phone clutched in hand with the missed calls and texts from his sister and girlfriend. Not once, had he forgotten to pick up his sister at school in the year since he gained custody of her. He can’t even remember if he properly explained to Margaery or Loras why he had to leave so suddenly, or if he just ran out of the store like a chicken with its head cut off. He couldn’t tell if he wanted to cry or throw up, or both, but kept telling himself that she was at least safe with Sansa and not waiting out in front of her school still like some abandoned orphan. He wasn’t sure how fast he drove to Sansa’s apartment, but before he knew it, he was running up the steps to her building. He cursed at the elevator for not moving faster but eventually made it to her front door.

His fist hurt as he pounded on the wood while trying to slow his breathing. He just needed to see his sister to know that she was okay. A flash of red came across his line of sight as Sansa opened the door to her and Marg’s apartment. She didn’t even get a chance to invite him in before he pushed by her, and with frantic eyes, searched the room for Lyanna. He caught a glimpse of her curly brown hair out of the corner of his vision and turned to see his sister sitting at the island in the kitchen with a plate of cookies in front of her. She seemed surprised at his sudden entrance but even more so when Jon rushed over to her and pulled her into a ferocious hug, knocking her off the bar stool.

“I’m so sorry, honey, so, so, sorry,” Jon whispered into her hair, breathing in the scent of her fruity shampoo.

“It’s okay, really, I know today was your first day at work, it’s not a big deal,” Lyanna offered, not really believing her own words.

Jon pulled back and placed his hands on Lyanna’s shoulders, “that doesn’t matter. It’s my job to take care of you and I fucked up today. I promise you it won’t happen again. I’m just so glad you’re okay.”

Lyanna stared into her brother’s eyes and wished she could just keep her mouth shut when words began pouring from it, “you’re allowed to have a life too, you shouldn’t have to be burdened by me, you’re not my dad.”

Jon gave her a look that instantly made her feel guilty – it was as if she had broken his heart in a single sentence.

“Lya, you aren’t a burden to me, I love you and agreed to take care of you,” he spoke softly.

Sansa had been trying to make herself busy in the living room after Jon burst into her apartment, knowing the two needed to talk, uninterrupted. However, she could hear the emotion starting to come from the siblings and decided to make herself scarce. She grabbed her phone and headed to her room to text Margaery that if she was coming home soon, to head to her bedroom and leave Jon and Lyanna alone.

“Stop being like that!” Lyanna shouted, causing Jon to take a step back.

“Like what?”

“Stop making me feel guilty for the life you have. If I wasn’t around you wouldn’t have had to move and quit your job and leave all your friends. It’s because of me that we can’t afford rent because it took so long for you to find a job with me being in school and the stupid bus not stopping by our complex! You shouldn’t have to be the one that’s tired because you didn’t sleep all night to take care of me when I’m sick or have a nightmare!” Lyanna paused, feeling the knot in her throat swell as the tears began to fall, “mom should still be here! She should be the one taking care of me, not you!

Lyanna slid her back down the side of the island and curled up in a ball with tears pouring down her face. Jon had only seen Lyanna cry like this a few times before but knew better than to try and pull her into his arms or comfort her. She needed to let her emotions out and the only thing he could think to do was sit down on the floor in front of her and be there for her. He took deep breaths, hoping they would coax his sister into doing the same. After what felt like hours, her sobs became hiccupping whimpers. Lyanna kept her face tucked down, with her arms wrapped around her knees, like a protective shield. He knew she was usually embarrassed to have others see her cry and was silently grateful to Sansa for having left the room earlier.

Finally, he got the courage to speak up, “I had no idea you felt like this,” sighing, he added, “I wish you had talked to me sooner.”

Lyanna huffed, “I didn’t want to bother you.”

Jon felt his jaw tighten and wished he knew what to say to her, “you’re right, mom should be here with you…but she’s not. I can’t make her come back even though I would give up anything just to give us one more conversation with her. I would even take a hug at this point.”

That got his sister to smirk, even if it was only to herself.

“If I ever made you feel like a burden, I am so sorry. You’re the furthest thing from a burden to me. Honestly, you’re the only reason I get out of bed every morning. I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t in my life. I wish I knew how to make this better for you,” Jon added.

Lyanna sighed heavily, much too heavy for a thirteen-year-old. Wiping her cheeks, he saw her make eye contact with him for the first time since she started crying, “I don’t think you _can_ make it better.”

Jon felt like he was doing this all wrong and as though the air in the room was suddenly depriving him of oxygen.

“I’m going to find Sansa, okay?”

What Jon did know, was that was the wrong thing to say. His sister looked heartbroken and retreated back into herself. He stuck to his guns and stood, searching around the apartment for his girlfriend. He came to a closed door that he could only imagine led to Sansa’s room, and knocked. He heard a “come in” and timidly opened her door. Sansa was sat at a desk to the side of her bed, browsing her computer. He wasn’t sure if it was for show to pretend she hadn’t heard their argument or if she really was trying to make herself busy.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Sansa replied, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

“I think I’m going to head out, probably drop Lya off at my parents. Give her a night away from me.”

Sansa could see the glistening in Jon’s eyes and knew he was just as heartbroken as his sister. Admittedly, she was a little upset with Jon for how he handled the whole situation but deep down, understood he was just trying to make the best of a bad situation. She didn’t think she would be taking care of Bran and Rickon half as well as Jon was of Lyanna.

“Lyanna’s had an emotional day, if you’re okay with it, she can stay here tonight. I understand if you’re not comfortable with it though.”

Jon raised an eyebrow, “you want Lyanna to stay here?”

Sansa nodded, “only if it’s alright with you.”

He ran a hand through his hair, debating, “let me see what she wants to do.”

Jon walked back out to find his sister still curled in a fetal position on the floor. His gut was telling him to stay and fight it out with her-not to abandon her like a coward because emotions made them uncomfortable. But his mind convinced him that Lyanna would be better off with Sansa or her grandparents tonight-that he wasn’t what she needed right now.

“How do you feel about staying here with Sansa and Margaery tonight?” Jon asked as he crouched down in front of his sister.

Lyanna lifted her head to stare at her brother in disbelief.

“Or I can drop you off at Nana Cat and Papa Ned’s?”

This was it, Lyanna concluded that this was Jon’s way of getting rid of her. She pushed him and now he didn’t want her around anymore. She felt a new wave of panic and anguish wash over her. She didn’t want her brother to see her fall apart again and instead, physically shoved him away from her, figuring anger was an easier display of emotion.

“Get out!” She screamed, holding the knot in her throat back long enough to hear her brother mumble a goodbye to Sansa before slamming the front door of the apartment, without uttering another word her way.

The sobbing and hyperventilating came back with a vengeance. Her world felt like it was crumbling around her and there was no way to claw herself out. It was as though the grief of losing her mother came rushing back to her as if it had just happened. Now she was losing her brother too. The only family she had left. The darkness swirled around her in an all-consuming heaviness until warmth suddenly surrounded her. She found herself being pulled into soft and soothing arms-a flash of red darting across her vision. Lyanna allowed herself the comfort of being swept onto Sansa’s lap. She could hear Sansa uttering calming words but couldn’t overcome the need to just cry.

“Why did he leave me?” The young girl sobbed.

“Deep breaths,” Sansa allowed her to cry until it sounded like there was nothing left in her tiny body, then kissed the top of her head and ran a hand through her curly hair, “your brother thought you wanted some space from him. He can be an idiot sometimes.”

Lyanna gave a wet laugh and sniffled, relishing being enclosed by warmth and safety, even though she wished Sansa wouldn’t have seen her break down. Shyly, she wiped her nose with her sleeve and lifted her head. Sansa immediately wiped her tears with her hand and held the girl tighter.

“How about I text Margaery to pick us up some Chinese food and we can all have a movie night tonight?”

Lyanna softly smiled and slightly nodded her head. Together, they got off the floor and Sansa led her over to the couch where she plopped herself down, allowing the billowing cushions to consume her. Sansa grabbed her phone and shot Marg a text. Then, went into her bedroom to grab extra blankets and even a sweatshirt for Lyanna to cozy into, should she want it.

“Here you go, honey.” Lyanna hauled the sweatshirt over her head, immediately, causing Sansa to giggle.

Margaery arrived at the apartment, food in hand, not long after. She took one look at the young girl curled on the couch and offered, “oh yeah, good night for Chinese food and a film.”

Lyanna was immediately taken aback by how striking Margaery was and felt a little shy around her at first until she saw how easily Sansa and her interacted. It was almost like watching a dance. One would tease the other, causing an arm to end up around a hip or a kiss on a cheek letting the other know it was all in good fun. If Sansa wasn’t dating her brother, Lyanna definitely would have guessed the two women were together. Her mind went to Shireen and felt the knot in her stomach return.

Sansa walked over to the couch with two plates in hand and gave one to Lyanna and sat on the sofa next to her. Margaery came over with her plate and two glasses of wine then placed herself on the love seat next to the couch.

“So, what are we watching, loves?” The blonde asked, fiddling with the remote, “ever seen 16 candles?”

Lyanna shook her head while shoving a forkful of fried rice into her mouth.

“Marg, we can’t show her that film, they show boobs in it. Jon would kill me if we corrupted her,” Sansa argued.

“Babe, I’m pretty sure seeing a pair of boobs isn’t going to corrupt our Lyanna here, right dear?” Marg looked at Lyanna so suddenly with her bright eyes, she almost choked on her food.

“Right.”

Margaery tossed her a wink and put the movie on. Lyanna tried focusing on the film but couldn’t stop her mind from wandering elsewhere. She thought of her brother and didn’t know when he would want to see her again, or if he was going to send her off to live with her grandparents. Lyanna loved Ned and Cat but the thought of not living with her brother anymore was enough to bring a fresh wave of tears to her eyes.

Sansa heard the soft sniffles coming from her right and snuck in closer to the girl, not wanting to draw attention to her tears as she knew Lyanna would be embarrassed, even though Margaery was kind enough to pretend not to notice. Lyanna tucked herself into Sansa’s side and hid her face in the woman’s sweatshirt. She felt somewhat soothed as Sansa’s hand began to rub circles on her back and found it was easier to focus on the movie after a while. She actually began to quite enjoy it and laughed along with Sansa and Margaery at the funny bits and cringed at the awkward parts she was glad Jon wasn’t sitting next to her for.

Once the film ended, Margaery and Sansa moved to the kitchen to clean up the dishes while Lyanna got ready for bed. Sansa lent her a pair of sleep shorts to wear with her sweatshirt and gave her a new toothbrush. Lyanna would be kidding herself if she said she didn’t feel empty with Jon not being here to tuck her in and hug her goodnight. She was trying to enjoy her time with Sansa and Margaery because she really did like their company, but couldn’t get past her aching heart. She exited the bathroom cautiously, not too sure where she would be sleeping tonight. Honestly, Lyanna didn’t mind crashing on the couch. She would just need a blanket and maybe a spare pillow.

“Lyanna,” Sansa called from her bedroom. The young girl walked through the threshold to find Sansa changing the sheets to fresh ones.

“Hopefully the bed’s comfy for you, it’s a little old, but I like it,” Sansa said as she fluffed the pillows and noticed Lyanna’s confused expression.

“Where are you going to sleep? I can’t kick you out of your room,” Lyanna asked as she wrung her hands together, clearly unsure of herself.

“I’m going to crash in Margaery’s room, wouldn’t be the first time,” Sansa tried to ease the girl’s tension by throwing her a wink but it only seemed to cause a blush to form.

“You want me to braid your hair so you don’t have to sleep with that bun in?”

Lyanna nodded and shyly came over to sit next to Sansa on the bed. Sansa ran a brush through her hair and started to braid it. She couldn’t tell someone if they asked what came over her in that moment but she suddenly found herself spilling her guts to Sansa.

“So, there’s this dance coming up…” she began.

“At school?”

“Yeah, it’s a girl asks guy type of dance but…I was thinking about asking Shireen to go with me,” Lyanna felt the heat rise up her face immediately and was glad Sansa wasn’t facing her.

She did however, startle when Margaery suddenly popped her head into Sansa’s room at the mention of a school dance.

“Who’s Shireen?” The blonde asked with a knowing smirk.

“This girl that Lyanna fancies,” Sansa offered with the hint of a sisterly teasing tone.

Margaery tore over and sat in front of both girls on the carpeted floor, “oh, go on then.”

“I’m worried that she doesn’t like me like that-isn’t into girls,” Lyanna answered sincerely, figuring the two women currently with her would be the best and safest people to ask for this type of advice. She supposed Arya would also be a safe person but she sometimes worried about how much of their private conversations her Aunt Arya shared with Jon. She wasn’t quite ready for Jon to know about this.

“Well, you could always start by asking her to go without the context of being each other’s date and see if you get the vibe from her that she wants to go as friends or something more,” Margaery advised.

Sansa chimed in, “that’s not a bad plan but on the other hand, like we talked about before, if she’s really your friend she won’t care if you’re into girls and she’s not. She wouldn’t let that change your friendship if she really cares about you like a friend should.”

“Yeah,” Lyanna sighed, wishing this was all a lot easier.

“Would you mind going to the dance as just friends?” Margaery questioned.

“No, I would rather go as friends than nothing at all.”

“Good answer,” Sansa chuckled and she finished the braid, “alright love, it’s getting late.”

Margaery blew her a kiss goodnight and hopped out of the room as quickly as she appeared. Sansa made sure Lyanna was tucked into bed snugly and stayed with her for a few minutes until she was able to settle down.

“Sansa?” She whispered as quiet began to fill the room.

“Yeah hon?”

“Jon and I will be okay, right?” She asked, not wanting to let the tears fall again.

She felt Sansa lean down and plant a kiss to her forehead, “of course you will. Siblings fight, it’s what we’re made to do. Everything will feel better in the morning. Nighttime has this knack of making you feel like the world is ending and once the sun comes back out, it doesn’t seem as bad as you had imagined. You guys just need some cooling off time and you’re welcome to stay with Margaery and I for as long as you want to, okay?” Lyanna nodded and pulled the blankets up to her chin, finally feeling the heaviness of sleep begin to pull at her.

“We’re right next door if you need anything tonight and don’t hesitate to wake us up.” Sansa stood from the bed and turned off the lamp on the bed’s side table.

“Goodnight.”

“Night.”

Lyanna fell into a fitful night’s sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all like the start to this fic! This is my first entry into GOT fic writing, I'm used to writing for a different fandom but this story idea has been in my head for a little while.


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